Turkish FM: Al-Assad would not rule Syria for long

ISTANBUL, May 31 (KUNA) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad "would not be able to rule his nation because he killed one million people." The minister, in an interview with the Deutsche Welle television channel, has affirmed that Turkey plays a pivotal role in the Syrian question.
He rejected a reported US proposal to swap the detained Christian pastor, Andrew Brunson, who hails from North Carolina, U.S., for Fethullah Gulen, a leading Turkish opposition activist who lives in America.
The American pastor is held on charges, examined by the judiciary, he said. Turkish judiciary ordered his imprisonment but did not specify how long he would remain behind iron bars.
Turkish judiciary, on December 9, 2016, charged him with having illicit affiliations with Gulen's group and the outlawed Workers Party of Kurdistan (the PKK). (end) ta.rk