Turkish opp. leader slams French terror mediation offer

By Orhun Onur Gemici

ANKARA (AA) - France’s offer to mediate between Turkey and the PYD/PKK-led SDF terrorist group in Syria is "unacceptable,” the leader of the Turkish opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said on Friday.

“Terrorists being hosted in European capitals and palaces is both a faulty act and a state of primitiveness and despair that deciphers their malicious behavior and inferiority,” Devlet Bahceli said on Twitter.

“This hideousness is impossible to digest or accept, and out of question,” Bahceli added.

Bahceli also said that the enthusiasm of France to mediate between PYD/PKK is “unconsciousness”, as well as “carelessness and moral weakness that dares to synchronize terrorist organizations with a sovereign and legitimate state”.

“It is absurd, misguided, to think that the Turkish people will tolerate such a fuss,” he added.

After Thursday’s meeting at the Elysee Palace, France’s presidency issued a statement saying that Macron recalled “France’s commitment against the PKK and its commitment to the security of Turkey”.

However, as Turkey has documented, the PYD/PKK and SDF actually are the Syrian branches of the terrorist PKK, recognized by Turkey, France, and the EU as a terrorist group.

Macron also claimed the SDF had “no operational link with this terrorist group” -- the PKK -- adding that "a dialogue could be established between the SDF and Turkey with the assistance of France and the international community".

But the SDF is dominated by PYD/PKK forces, as Ankara has demonstrated.

In its 30-year terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK has taken some 40,000 lives.

Ankara has warned against international actors cooperating with such groups as the PYD/PKK, YPG/PKK, and SDF/PKK, as they are just the PKK under different names.