No: 179, 30 May 2014

We condemn the violence resulting in the death of a great number of civilians following the attacks which began with the murder of three young Muslims on 25 May 2014 and then targeted a church and a mosque in Bangui, Capital of the Central African Republic. We call for the halt of the retaliatory clashes.

We expect that the Interim Government of the Central African Republic and the international peacekeeping troops that are present in the country will exert all necessary efforts to catch the perpetrators and will not tolerate the repetition of such incidents.

We consider it essential that all parties in the Central African Republic take concrete steps towards launching the national dialogue process aimed at putting an end to the crisis in the country without delay, with the support of the international community. Turkey, which has been following the crisis in the Central African Republic with concern, believes that the ground for dialogue will emerge when the Muslims of this country who have been forced to migrate will have returned to their homes and will continue to strongly support every effort to that end. Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu expressed this position to the Foreign Minister of the Central African Republic during their bilateral meeting at the Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Algiers on 28-29 May 2014 as well.