World Bulletin / News Desk

War-torn Syria has now become a country that exports terrorism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

In his speech at the Turkey-Somalia Business Forum in Istanbul, Erdogan said: “The chaos in Syria has provided an environment to terrorist organizations such as ISIL, Al Nusra, the PYD and the YPG to grow and disperse”.

The YPG is the armed wing of the PYD, the PKK’s Syrian affiliate. Turkey sees all three groups as terrorist organizations.

“Turkey, a country which feels the most pain of the Syrian-origin threats, is the most affected country by the terror attacks,” the president said.

Erdogan repeated his call to the international community to take a common stance against terrorism and countries that support it.

He said that around 400,000 people have died and 12 million people were displaced since the Syrian war began in 2011.

“We, as Turkey, could not be silent to the tragedy in our neighboring country,” he said.

“Turkey is hosting more than three million refugees regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or language,” he added.

The business forum was organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey.