31 March 2018 12:00 am
ISTANBUL AFP March30, 2018- Turkey on Friday turned down a French offer to mediate with the Syrian Democratic Forces dominated by a Kurdish militia deemed a terrorist outfit by Ankara, a presidential spokesman said.
“We reject any efforts to promote ‘dialogue’, ‘contact’ or ‘mediation’ between Turkey and those terrorist organisations,” Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said he hoped “a dialogue” could be established between the two sides with help from Paris and the international community, after he met a delegation of Syrian and Arab fighters. The backbone of the SDF is the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia which has been driven out of its Afrin stronghold by a Turkish offensive in northern Syria. The YPG is the military wing of the main Syrian Kurdish political movement, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The Turkish military began its offensive against the YPG in January.