HDP lawmaker discusses Turkey's offensive on Afrin with French President

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Garo Paylan on Tuesday discussed Turkey’s now two weeks-long military campaign on the enclave of Afrin in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) with French President Emmanuel Macron who warned Ankara about the offensive.

Paylan, an Armenian MP for Istanbul at the Turkish Parliament, attended an annual dinner held by the Co-ordination Council of Armenian organizations of France (CCAF) in Paris.

During his meeting with Macron, Paylan voiced his concerns about the recent developments in Turkey and Afrin, a statement on the HDP’s website read.

In the same event, Paylan was honored by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo with the highest distinction of the city, “la médaille Grand Vermeil,” for his struggle for democracy and human rights in Turkey.

“If it turns out that this operation takes a turn other than to fight a potential terrorist threat to the Turkish border and becomes an invasion operation, [then] this becomes a real problem for us,” Macron had asserted in a Wednesday interview with French daily Le Figaro.

Macron said he would discuss the issue again with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that the nature of the operation meant there should be talks between European nations, but also more widely, among NATO allies.

Last week, Erdogan said the Kurds were later brought in Afrin and that the Arabs constituted over half of the population, promising to give the region back to “its true owners.”

HDP and Syrian Kurdish officials condemned Erdogan’s remarks as an intention and threat of “ethnic cleansing.”

France, along with the United States, is one of the countries that have armed the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the war on the Islamic State (IS). However, the YPG is currently defending Afrin against attacks by the Turkish army and its proxies.

There are also French military bases in Rojava.

In response to Macron, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his country had no intentions of invading northern Syria.

“Marcon’s understanding is fundamentally flawed,” Yildirim said at a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Saad Hariri in Ankara.

Kurdish Medical sources in Afrin have confirmed the killing of 68 civilians, 21 of them children, and the wounding of 170 others as of the last day of January.

Meanwhile, an HDP delegation met with representatives at the German Federal Parliament and held talks about Ankara’s attacks on Afrin with officials from the Left Party, Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the Green Party.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany