Macron voices ‘concern’ over Turkey’s Syria offensive

The Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, were a key player in the defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria and they led the offensive that successfully reclaimed the Islamic State group’s self-declared capital: Raqqa.

“We can not tolerate the PKK establishing some kind of a state structure along our border in Syria”, warned presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.

The progressive forces from northern Syria (also known as Rojava), who support the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria and its system of democratic confederalism that Turkey is seeking to destroy, have called for urgent global solidarity.

“It distracts from the global efforts to ensure the defeat of ISIS”, Mattis said, speaking to reporters between meetings in Jakarta, Indonesia.

US President Donald Trump is expected to express America s unease in a call telephone with Erdogan on Wednesday.

Tillerson said that Washington has proposed it could assist in setting up a security zone on the Syrian border to help stabilize the situation in Afrin and address Turkey’s security concerns.

On 20 January the Turkish air force continued to bomb the intended targets in Syria.

Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into unverified photos shared on social media claimed to have been taken in Afrin, purportedly showing that the offensive inflicted civilian injuries, TRT state broadcaster reported. Fifty-four Syrian fighters and 24 civilians have also been killed, according to the United Kingdom -based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“We are getting calls from local officials warning that Turkey is pushing deeper into our territory, perhaps even hoping to take the city of Afrin itself”.

Four days of fighting has cost the lives of 43 pro-Ankara Syrian rebels, 38 Kurdish fighters, one Turkish soldier and 28 civilians. According to a statement by the general staff in Ankara, the Turkish armed forces have been deployed since five o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday in an operation whose objective is to “neutralise” the terrorist groups and to “liberate friendly and brotherly people of the region from oppression and tyranny”. “We are establishing shelter centers for these people”.

The Kremlin said Putin had discussed Turkey’s military operation in Syria’s Afrin with Erdogan by phone and said that Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty had to be respected.

Turkey considers the YPG a terror group and the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

The US and Turkey are North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies but they have diverging interests in the Syrian civil war.

France’s UN Ambassador François Delattre said Afrin “was of course part of the conversation” at the closed-door talks in NY. “These will never deter Turkey”.

The YPG has denied that any of the Afrin region is under Turkish control.