Bulgarian ex-FM Passy: NATO Should Rid Syria of Assad

NATO should intervene in the conflict in Syria in the wake of the incursion by Syrian government forces in Turkish territory, stated former Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Minsiter Solomon Passy.

"Turkey is a major geopolitical power and it can indeed defend itself from Syrian raids, but notwithstanding NATO should give the Bashar Al-Assad regime a clear signal of our solidarity with Turkey," said he.

"NATO can still help to free the Syrian people of the nearly half-century long dictatorship of the Assad clan," added Passy.

According to him, it is high time that Syria too experiences its spring and real transition to democracy.

"Syria is just the next piece of evidence that whenever NATO is idle or heistating, humankind as a whole loses. While when NATO acts, all win," quipped Passy.

Solomon Passy was Bulgaria's foreign affairs minister in the cabinet of PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg, 2001-2005.

Prior to that he was for many years president of the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria, an organization devoted to promoting Bulgaria's integration to NATO, which he still chairs.