Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu within the framework of the 50th Munich Security Conference attended the panel entitled “What season is next for the Middle East” which was held in February 2, 2014

Criticizing Assad regime for not taking a step regarding transition process and humanitarian issues during the peace talks in Geneva, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu urged the United Nations to take action and said “Hundreds of thousands in Syria are under siege, deprived of bread and water due to the strategy of starvation aiming to kill them.”

Emphasizing that the UN should play a leading role in Syria, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu underlined that first of all, concerning the humanitarian assistance, a binding resolution providing for "unlimited humanitarian access" should be adopted and the ones who prevent the access of humanitarian assistance must be held accountable.

Secondly, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu stated that it should be clarified that how many of the chemical weapons possessed by the regime was handed over to the UN authorities and said “Chemical weapons pose a threat as great as nuclear weapons and use of chemical weapons is a crime against humanity. This must be ended. In this regard all of us, all leaders shoulder responsibility and will be held accountable in history.”

Thirdly, stressing that the UN should take action regarding political solution Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said “Geneva-1 decisions must be adopted as a UN Security Council resolution. In this way, the regime must be prevented from avoiding the establishment of a transitional governing body.”

Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said “We must see the people at the point of starving to death. It is not important that today is spring or summer. There is no season for the people in Syria who have been left dead with scud missiles, chemical weapons, strategy of starving. There is no season, no sun, and no rain for them. They are just waiting for dead. This is the main topic of today.”

Stressing that there are national, regional and international dimensions of the international security, “Today, there are three threats; extremism, sectarianism and ethno-nationalism and chemical or nuclear mass destruction weapons. With regard to these threats, there are forthcoming huge risks” said Foreign Minister Davutoğlu.

Emphasizing that increasing extremism and terrorism pose a threat for everybody, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said “Turkey was obliged to strike a convoy of ISIS. Until now, we have acted with caution in order not to intervene in developments in Syria, but the threat is coming close to us. Who is responsible from these events? It is the regime of Bashar Assad. Because the regime created such a vacancy, such a trouble.”

Reiterating Turkey’s support to Geneva-2 Conference once again, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu criticized the attitude of the regime during the first meeting in Geneva. “One of the two objectives of the Geneva-2 concerning the humanitarian assistance was not achieved” said Foreign Minister Davutoğlu and underlined that regarding the second objective on the establishment of a transitional governing body in accordance with Geneva-1, the regime also did not display political will to start negotiations.

On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu respectively met with U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, Stefan Füle, Secretary-General of OSCE, Lamberto Zannier and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Erkki Tuomioja, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Libya, Mohamed Abdelaziz, Foreign Policy Advisor of Prime Minister of Germany, Christopher Heusgen and President of Croatia, Ivo Josipovic.