France has reiterated its support for the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG, extolling the “courage” of the terrorist group amid clashes with the Syrian National Army (SNA) in the north following the ouster of Bashar Assad.
Speaking at a parliamentary session on Tuesday, Danielle Simonnet, deputy of the French National Assembly, urged the international community to help the terrorist group and demanded that Türkiye halt its cross-border operations against the PKK/YPG in northern Iraq.
Calling the SNA “Türkiye-backed militants” and characterizing their fight against the PKK/YPG as a “war,” Simonnet claimed, “The war in the region continues despite the fall of the Assad regime.”
The French MP also said a delegation of her party had recently visited Ayn al-Arab, which is occupied by the PKK/YPG.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, the U.S. and Türkiye. The group is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths in Türkiye, including women and children. It maintains strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria to create a self-styled “Kurdish state.” The YPG is its Syrian extension backed by the United States.
The U.S. has dispatched troops along with military equipment and weapons to Syria’s northeast during the Syrian civil war to help the PKK/YPG under the pretext of the fight against Daesh.
Swathes of northern Syria, including oil-rich areas, have been occupied by the PKK/YPG since 2015.
Türkiye has mounted multiple operations against the PKK/YPG since 2016, and the SNA has captured several YPG-occupied towns in the past months, including Manbij and Deir el-Zour.
Clashes have continued between the SNA and the YPG since, nowadays concentrated around the Tishrin Dam near Manbij.
France is an active member of the U.S.-led coalition against the Daesh terror group and maintains a military presence in northeast Syria. President Emmanuel Macron last month assured France would not abandon the terrorist group in Syria.
Simonnet said the international community “salutes the courage” of the terrorist group but also argued the world had “abandoned” the PKK/YPG against Türkiye’s operations.
Similarly, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who took the floor at the national assembly, called the YPG an “ally” to France and announced the YPG would attend the Syria conference that will be held in Paris on Feb. 13.
Barrot argued the YPG must be included in the new Syrian administration and expressed “discomfort” over Türkiye’s counterterrorism operations.
Türkiye says the PKK/YPG is on par with Daesh and should have no presence in the new Syria.
Ankara said it trusts the new Syrian administration in the fight against the PKK/YPG but threatened military action if the terrorist group refuses to disband, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saying the terrorist group must “bury their arms” or themselves would “be buried.”
