Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Al-Miqdad, which aired on Al-Manar TV on May 16, 2012:

Faysal Al-Miqdad: We will not listen to Erdoğan because he is a hypocrite and a liar. We will not listen to the Turkish foreign minister, who is lying day and night. The refugee problem was created by them. They pay money to anyone willing to leave his home. The so-called “Free Syrian Army” – those armed gangs that they harbor – is a terrorist organization that forces Syrians to become refugees, by threatening their families, their children, and so on.

We say to the Turkish leadership, and to whoever tries to use the refugee problem as a pretext, that Syria is prepared for these citizens to return.

I appeal to them [to return]. They are dear citizens, who are close to the heart of every Syrian citizen. They can return to their homes and their country, which will welcome them, in the full sense of the word.

We will not ask them why they left and why they returned. We will provide them with all the help they need to return to their country, to their lands, to their fields, and to the places from which they were driven out, in most cases by force.

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We are talking about terrorist operations carried out in Syria, with the help of the governments of some neighboring countries. If a neighboring country helps the terrorists on purpose – the terrorism of that country will face terrorism itself. Terrorism has no identity, no country, and no values. Any country that allows terrorism will suffer from the same terrorism.

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