Turkey will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the war-torn country being divided along ethnic lines, Turkish Prime Binali Yildirim said on Saturday. Turkey fears the strengthening of Kurdish militant groups in Syria will further embolden its own Kurdish insurgency, which flared anew following the collapse of a ceasefire between militants and the state last year. But we believe that there should be no (Kurdish rebels), Daesh or Assad in Syria's future," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Yildirim also denied news reports that Russia was seeking to use Turkey's southern air base of Incirlik for its operations in Syria. "They have no request for Incirlik," Yildirim said.

Source: CBC News August 20, 2016 13:41 UTC