Allies deliberately sabotaged Turkey's safe zones proposal: Erdoğan

Turkey will focus on high value-added products with the new economic program, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday.

Turkey's new economic program is based on three fundamental pillars: stabilization, discipline and transformation.

"We can see that with the precautions that have been taken, there are signs of balance in our economy," Erdoğan said.

"The foundations of the Turkish economy are stable. The Turkish economy and banking system will not be brought down, because they are resistant to shocks," he added.

"You know that there are speculative and manipulative attacks targeting the Turkish economy. The aim of these attacks is to endeavor to try to make us accept decisions that contradict our national interests in matters concerning the survival of our country," Erdoğan said.

President Erdogan said Turkey's proposal to build safe zones in Syria was "deliberately sabotaged," especially by allies.

"Our 'safe zones' proposal that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and managed to prevent displacing millions of Syrians was deliberately sabotaged, especially by our allies," Erdoğan said.

"The bill for this deadlock is firstly being paid by the Syrian people, then by neighboring countries like Turkey," he said.

Mostly controlled by the Free Syrian Army, Idlib is located just across the border from Turkey’s southern province of Hatay.

Following a meeting in Sochi last month between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the two countries agreed to establish a demilitarized zone in Idlib, Syria’s last opposition stronghold.

Ankara and Moscow also signed a memorandum of understanding calling for the "stabilization" of Idlib's de-escalation zone, in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

Under the deal, opposition groups in Idlib will remain in areas in which they are already present, while Russia and Turkey will conduct joint patrols in the area with a view to preventing renewed fighting.

Turkey has spent some $33 billion helping refugees from the Syrian civil war, while the European Union has broken its pledges of help, said Turkey’s president on Tuesday.

The EU “was supposed to allocate to international organizations, not us, €6 billion [$6.87 billion], using a 3 3 installment system,” he stated.

But, he added, “they only gave out €1.7 billion [$1.94 billion]. Despite all that, we continue our services."

The president also said Turkey has footage of refugees being left for dead in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

"I say it sadly, the international community failed to fulfill its responsibility to find a solution to the refugee issues," said Erdoğan, on the last day of a two-day visit to Hungary.