A Turkish scholar has claimed on Saturday that some 12.5 million Muslims have been killed in wars during the last 25 years.

Refik Turan, head of the Turkish Historical Society, said at the "World Wars, Turkey and Syria on Unending Struggles for Power" conference:

“Usually war is between two states, but there are wars within the country as well. The results of a war cannot be predicted. Wars are a fact of our lives.

“According to a recent research, the number of Muslims who died in the fights and wars in the world in the last 25 years have reached 12.5 million. This almost accounts to the losses in a World War.”

Turan was also adamant that the US, Russia and Iran did not want peace in Syria, pointing out that the results of the Syria war are evidence of that.

“Turkey addresses 80 percent [of problems] in Syria. No one has this sort of potential. After the terrorists are cleared from Manbij, the ray [of hope] will light up all of Syria.”

The civil war erupted in Syria in 2011 after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime met large pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been reported dead in the war-torn country, according to the UN.