Russia uses world war threat to dictate Syria policy: Turkish PM

Russia is deliberately using the threat of a possible world war in order to dictate its policy in Syria, according to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu. 

"Russia is consciously engaging in a perception operation to suggest 'there could be a world war.' By keeping this on the agenda, Russia continues to bother the world and dictate its policy," Davuto?lu said Feb. 15 en route to Kyiv for a one-day visit. 

"We should not be tricked with this perception operation," he added. 

Davuto?lu was referring to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's words in Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper on Feb. 11 that "world war" was possible if international powers failed to negotiate an end to the conflict in Syria.

Medvedev also said the United States and Russia, and even Turkey, must exert pressure on all sides in the conflict to secure a cease-fire.

On Feb. 13, Medvedev said strains between Russia and the West had pushed the world "into a new cold war."
"On an almost daily basis, we are being described as the worst threat - be it to NATO as a whole, or to Europe, America or other countries," Medvedev said.

On Feb. 14, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Russian President Vladimir Putin was the only man who could end Syria's civil war "with one phone call." 

Speaking on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show on Feb. 14, Hammond said the political situation in Syria had not changed in the past year and that "whether or not al-Assad goes or stays" depends on Russia's influence. 

Davuto?lu has once again vowed that Turkey will not allow Syria's Azaz district, in the countryside north of Aleppo, to fall to the forces of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). 

"We will not let Azaz fall,"...