Turkey furious over Macron's meeting with Syrian Kurds
The official French press release said Macron reiterated France's commitment "to the security of Turkey and de-escalation along the Syrian-Turkish border," in a remark that appeared targeted to appease Turkish objections to Kurdish interests in Syria.
Turkey invaded parts of northwestern Syria, including al-Bab and Afrin of northern Aleppo, in 2016 and 2018 respectively to crush Kurds' aspirations of autonomy in the region. This lead to the displacement of 140 thousand Kurds from the latter in what critics charge is a sustained campaign of demographic change.
Right after March 31 nationwide local elections in Turkey, Erdogan renewed his long-held threat of staging a third invasion operation into Syrian Kurdistan, particularly in the town of Manbij, as his ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost the control of both the capital Ankara and Istanbul, the country's economic powerhouse.
France, along with the US, has been one of the major world powers backing Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Unlike Washington, that contributes much more in military terms, Paris has not shied away from voicing support for the Kurds' political demands in both countries.
Friday's meeting between Syrian Kurdish leaders and the French leadership was not the first of its kind at Élysée, with an earlier one being held shortly after the Kurds delivered the Islamic State its first major defeat in the battle of Kobani. In early 2015, Macron's predecessor François Hollande hosted Asya Abdullah, the then co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the ruling faction in Syrian Kurdistan, and Nesrin Abdullah, a commander of the Kurdish Women's Defence Force (YPJ).
French officials, including President Macron and his Defense Minister Florence Parly, have been working to dissuade US President Donald Trump from implementing his abrupt decision to withdraw some 2,000 American troops from northeastern Syrian, a step they say would leave the Kurds exposed to war with Turkey and confrontation with Damascus.
France also keeps several hundred troops in Syrian Kurdistan in support of the continued fight against the Islamic State and for the stabilization of areas liberated from the jihadist group's brutal rule.
Editing by John J. Catherine