Turkey continues to warn France over its military plans in Syria

Tabnak – As the United States and France are revising their Syrian strategies, showing signs of adopting a more aggressive policy toward the issue, Syrian is becoming a scene representing the growing rift between Turkey on the one hand and its NATO allies on the other. In the latest sign of the rift, Ankara has warned Paris over its military plans in Syria.

In this vein, Turkey which has itself deployed troops to northern Syria says if France steps up its military presence in the Arab country, it will amount to an “invasion.”

"If France takes any steps regarding its military presence in northern Syria, this would be an illegitimate step that would go against international law and in fact, it would be an invasion," Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said Saturday.

France, which has criticized Ankara over its military offensive in Syria’s Afrin, operates in Syria as part of the so-called US coalition. French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a delegation of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has the Kurdish YPG as its backbone, at the Elysee Palace on March 29.

After the Paris meeting, Kurdish officials said France was planning to send new troops to the city of Manbij, also in northern Syria. Paris has also threatened to attack Syria if it was established that Damascus had deployed chemical weapons in its military operation, an accusation strongly rejected by the Syrian government.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was another Turkish who criticized Paris, accusing France of supporting terrorists. "France, you are abetting terrorism, supporting it by then hosting them at the Elysee Palace," Erdogan told his supporters in the southwestern province of Denizli on Saturday.

"You will not be able to explain this. You will not be able to rid yourself of this terror burden ... As long as the West nurtures these terrorists, you will sink," he added.

Turkey has also criticized the United States over sending what it said were mixed messages on Syria, saying Washington was sowing confusion by equivocating about its future role in the country.

“The President of the United States says ‘We’re going to get out of Syria very soon’ and then others say, ‘No, we are staying’,” Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said, referring to recent comments from U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials.

The developments come as the Turkish military says it has established full control over Afrin following more than two months of battle with the YPG, which Ankara views as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).