On 30 March 2018, following President Macron’s meeting with a PYD delegation, the party of the Kurds in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a violent speech in which he issued a warning to France.

According to the Elysée, President Emmanuel Macron received a delegation from the DFS (Democratic Forces of Syria) [1]. The DFS is a front behind which lies the PYD, the sister organization of the Turkish PKK.

According to the former Turkish Chief of Staff, General Ilker Basbug, the PKK and the PYD, both of which had started out as Marxist-Leninist, pro-Soviet and pro-Syrian organizations, have now become anarchist groups that are pro-NATO [2].

In the speech he delivered this Friday, President Erdogan emphasized that France was hosting the offices of the PKK and the PYD in Paris, even though these organizations are responsible for a multitude of attacks costing the lives of 40 000 Turkish citizens. He went on to emphasize that Turkey does not need a mediator to deal with terrorist groups.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also issued a threat: if France did not give up this policy, it would not escape suffering on its territory, the negative consequences of Turkey pursuing its policy; a threat that brought back to our minds that threat President Erdogan made before the Paris attacks and the Brussels attacks.

The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, telephoned his French homologue, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to say that he was gobsmacked at France’s attitude.

The Elysee has clarified that, contrary to the declarations of the “ambassador” or the “Rojava” to Paris, France was not planning operations in Syria outside the International Coalition; explanations that do not change anything because it is this Coalition which has created the FDS as a front in order to continue to use the PKK-PYD mercenaries against Damascus.