Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday slammed President Emmanuel Macron for his recent offer to mediate between Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), saying he hopes Paris will not ask Ankara to help when terrorists fleeing Iraq and Syria arrive in France, the state-run Anadolu agency reported.
Meeting with a delegation from northern Syria that included the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia and Khaled Eissa, a Kurdish official based in Paris, Macron offered to mediate between Turkey and the Kurdish-dominated SDF, and assured the SDF of Paris’ support in stabilizing northern Syria.
Describing the meeting as “enmity against Turkey,” at a gathering of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) provincial chairpersons in Ankara, Erdoğan said if true, a proposal to mediate between Turkey and the SDF is “far beyond one’s limit.”
“With this attitude, France has no right to complain about any terrorist organization, any terrorist, any terrorist attack. Those who sleep with terrorists, welcome them in their palaces, will understand sooner or later the mistake that they made,” said Erdoğan.
“I hope they [Macron] will not try to ask our help when terrorists who have fled Iraq and Syria arrive in there [France], due to the French policy of encouragement,” he added.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu spoke on the phone with his French counterpart, Jean Yves Le Drian, on Friday.
“I asked French Foreign Minister Le Drian what they would think if President Erdoğan hosted the leaders of a terror group that attacked France in the presidential palace in Ankara,” Çavuşoğlu said during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin, in Ankara.