Turkey does not plan to create a buffer zone on its border with Syria, in the throes of a brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters, the Turkish defence minister said Tuesday.
"We do not want to create a new border with mines or a buffer zone," the Anatolia news agency quoted Ismet Yilmaz as saying in Sivas in central Turkey.
"On the contrary, we legislated a law to clean the minefield between Syria and us," Yilmaz said, when asked whether Turkey has considered a buffer zone on the border with its southern neighbor.
Companies have already bid to clean the area, Yilmaz said.
Several media reports recently said Turkey has weighed creating a buffer zone on its Syrian border to prevent the influx of refugees into the country as the Syrian regime's violent repression of protests grows worse.
Currently Turkey hosts almost 7,000 Syrian refugees in camps in southern Hatay province.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday reiterated his country's calls for an end to the bloody military operations against anti-regime protestors, saying operations had intensified despite talks last week with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Ankara, whose ties with Damascus have flourished in recent years, has repeatedly called on Assad to initiate reforms but has stopped short of calling for his departure.
The Syrian regime has sought to crush weeks of protests with brutal force, killing more than 1,600 civilians and arresting at least 12,000 of the dissenters, rights activists say.
