Turkey on Thursday dismissed cautionary remarks from France about its military operation in northern Syria as "insults", signaling continued strain between Ankara and its NATO allies over the incursion.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday warned Turkey that the operation in the northern Afrin region should not become an excuse to invade Syria and that he wanted Ankara to coordinate its action with its allies.
Turkey launched the air and ground offensive, dubbed "Operation Olive Branch", nearly two weeks ago to target the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin. But the incursion has put pressure on relations with the West, particularly the United States, which has backed the Kurdish fighters and has its own troops on the ground supporting them in other parts of Syria.
"We consider a country like France giving us reminders about an operation we are carrying out in accordance with international laws to be insults," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.
"We are using our right to self-defense, this is in line with UN Security Council decisions and not an invasion. They shouldn't be two-faced," he said.
France, like the United States, has extended arms and training to a YPG-led militia in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. That has infuriated Turkey, which considers the YPG terrorists and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast.
Cavusoglu said Syrian peace talks in Geneva needed to be revived, adding that the Syrian government needed to start negotiating in order to do so, after a Russian-sponsored conference on reaching peace in Syria was held this week in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.
The talks, which Russia has called a Syrian Congress on National Dialogue, ended on Tuesday with a statement calling for democratic elections, but ignoring key opposition demands after a day marred by squabbles and heckling of the Russian foreign minister.
REUTERS