WION EXCLUSIVE: All countries, Russia and UN should fight IS: President Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking exclusively to WION correspondent Ramesh Ramachandran appealed to all countries involved in fightingIS, including Russia and UN to come together to eliminate the terrorist organisation from the region.

"In order to destroy a terrorist organisation, you cannot use another terrorist organisation as an instrument," the president said.

The president blamed the Assad regimein Syria for waging "state terrorism", comparing it obliquely to IS, the president said, "Let's plan an administration for Syria which is going to be determined by the people, so long as we get rid of Assad - the murderous Assad."

The president clearly declared at present Fateh was a bigger threat to Turkey than IS since it was"infiltrating into the institutions of Turkey". He said PKK was also another big threatwhich is also present in the northern part of Syria. However, the president was quick to add that "the coalition forces are not fighting the IS with the same commitment as Turkey".

Erdogan who has been the president of Turkey since 2014, tactfully defended his country's relations with Russia balancing it withNATO countries.

"Russia is our neighbour, we have very significant trade volume with that country, we have a similar relationship with NATO with all member states under one roof," he said.

"One cannot be favoured at the cost of another," the president felt.

(WION)

Catchthe complete interviewwithTurkey's PresidentReccep TayyipErdoganon WION Live TV at 9 pm (IST) Saturday and repeat telecast at 8 pm (IST) Sunday.