The German carmaker Volkswagen is not actively scouting for an alternative location to Turkey, the company's production chief Andreas Tostmann said Tuesday.

“We are watching the developments. Plans for Turkey are currently on hold. We are not actively looking at alternative locations,” Tostmann told journalists.

The car manufacturer announced last week that it had postponed the final decision on whether to build a car factory in Turkey, in the wake of the international criticism over Turkey’s anti-terror operation in northern Syria.

Earlier this month, Volkswagen established a subsidiary in Turkey's western Manisa province, while the company said that it was still in the final stages of negotiation and had not made a final decision on the factory.

Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists affiliated with Daesh and the PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), on Oct. 9.

The operation, conducted in line with the country's right to self-defense borne out of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians return in the area east of the Euphrates River controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by YPG terrorists.