Turkey has no plans to designate Hezbollah a terrorist group - report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey does not have any plans to designate the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which has been directly involved in the Syrian civil war on President Bashar Al-Assad’s side, a terrorist group, after a move by the European Union.

Turkish diplomatic sources said that designating groups as terrorist “is not common practice in Turkish foreign policy.” “We condemn the terrorist activities individually. But there is no such list by Turkey for terrorist groups,” the sources said.

Mehmet Özcan, the chairman of the Ankara Strategy Institute, said that even if Turkey decided to do so, it would not impose any legal pressure on Hezbollah. “This [blacklisting] does not have a legal precedent in Turkey, so this would be an application that would hang in the air,” Özcan said.

Özcan also said that Turkey's blacklisting of Hezbollah would further increase the country's alienation in the Middle East.

“Turkey has distanced itself from Tehran and Baghdad due to the Syrian crisis. If Ankara took such a clear position against Hezbollah, its ability to maneuver in the Middle East would be further limited,” he noted. “Turkey's policy in the Middle East would be more and more perceived as a sectarian policy if it also falls out with Hezbollah after Tehran and Baghdad,” Özcan added.