Turkey has strongly rejected a proposal to deploy French troops along the Syrian border to establish a secure zone aimed at easing tensions with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group Ankara considers a terrorist organization. “Some small European countries participating in military operations in Syria under the US umbrella are attempting to further their own interests by speaking out on certain issues, but this brings no real benefit to themselves or the region,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday during a live press conference in Istanbul. “We do not engage with countries that try to hide behind America’s power while advancing their own agendas.” Ankara has warned of a potential cross-border offensive into northeastern Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the SDF, if the group does not comply with Turkish demands. Fidan reiterated that foreign fighters within the SDF, which is supported by the US, must leave the country, along with cadres from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), even if they were Syrian nationals. Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that has waged a 40-year insurgency against the Turkish state. Although the French government has not publicly proposed guarding the Turkish-Syrian border, French President Emmanuel Macron stated earlier this […]