DAMASCUS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it is still committed to the Adana pact between Turkey and Syria.
The ministry said that its activation requires a halt of terror support by Turkey and restoring the border situation to what it used to be, according to the state news agency SANA.
The ministry made the statement on the heels of Turkish remarks about Adana pact, which was signed in 1998 and allows Turkey to enter 5 km depth into the Syrian territory if the Turkish security is to be threatened by a terror threat.
The ministry stressed that activating this pact requires restoring the situation on the Syrian-Turkish border to what it used to be ahead of the Syrian war.
The ministry charged that the Turkish side is the one who violated the pact when its forces entered Syrian areas and it supported the rebel groups since 2011, when the Syrian crisis began.
Talks about the Adana agreement were on the agenda during the meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 23.
The Turkish side is apparently trying to find legal justification for the security zone in northeastern Syria, particularly in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is deemed by Turkey as a terror group due to its links with the Turkey-banned Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).
