NNA - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that Ankara is seeking to safely return Syrian refugees to areas controlled by the Syrian government, and not only to safe areas in northern Syria, as confirmed by "Russia Today" news agency.

In an interview with a local channel on Friday, Cavusoglu pointed to the return of about 553,000 Syrians to the areas Turkey "cleansed of terrorism in northern Syria."

He added, "We want to return the Syrians to the places controlled by the regime as well, not just the safe areas."

Cavusoglu indicated that this issue was discussed with the Syrian government within the framework of the quadruple track, which also includes Russia and Iran.

He added, "We agreed at the recent meeting of foreign ministers in Moscow to prepare the infrastructure in order to send the Syrians safely to the places controlled by the regime, and we decided to form a committee at the level of deputy ministers with the participation of the concerned institutions as well."

He also pointed out that most of the Syrians in Turkey want to return to their country, and stressed "the need to implement this process within the framework of international and Turkish laws."

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