Turkey has strongly rejected a proposal to deploy French troops along the Syrian border to establish a secure zone aimed at easing tensions with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group Ankara considers a terrorist organisation.
“Some small European countries participating in military operations in Syria under the US umbrella are attempting to further their own interests by speaking out on certain issues, but this brings no real benefit to themselves or the region,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday during a live press conference in Istanbul.
“We do not engage with countries that try to hide behind America’s power while advancing their own agendas.”
Ankara has warned of a potential cross-border offensive into northeastern Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the SDF, if the group does not comply with Turkish demands.
Fidan reiterated that foreign fighters within the SDF, which is supported by the US, must leave the country, along with cadres from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), even if they were Syrian nationals.
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Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that has waged a 40-year insurgency against the Turkish state.
Although the French government has not publicly proposed guarding the Turkish-Syrian border, French President Emmanuel Macron stated earlier this week that Paris would not abandon the SDF, which has been one of the many factions involved in Syria’s 13-year-long civil war.Â
“The United States and France could indeed secure the entire border. We are ready for this military coalition to take on this responsibility,” Ilham Ahmed, co-chair of foreign affairs for the Kurdish administration in northern Syria, was quoted as saying by TV5 Monde this week.
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Turkish officials have also dismissed a recent proposal by the SDF to demilitarise the northern Syrian city of Kobane under US observation.
Fidan said that Turkey would only take France’s views on Syria seriously if Paris was willing to operate independently in Syria – without US support – by conducting military operations, establishing bases, and holding territory.
“If France intends to act in Syria, it should first repatriate, prosecute, and imprison its own citizens who are terrorists being held in Syrian camps,” Fidan said. “You refuse to take responsibility for your own detainees while supporting the terrorists who hold them in prison. This stance is indefensible.”
France has often justified its support for the SDF, which has played a key role in defeating the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, by citing the SDF-run prison camps used to detain IS members and their families.
