The French president told Recep Tayyip Erdogan of his worries about the country’s military offensive, dubbed ’Operation Olive Branch’, aimed at rooting out the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist group.
Mr Macron’s office said in a statement: “Taking into account Turkey’s security needs, the president expressed to his Turkish counterpart his concerns following the military intervention launched Saturday in Afrin.”
Turkey triggered fresh fighting in Syria over the weekend after launching airstrikes against US-backed Kurdish militia.
But the operation has sparked widespread concern among Turkey’s NATO allies, including the United States, which continues to work closely with the YPG to defeat Islamic State jihadists in the region.
The Elysée Palace statement read: “Mr Macron underlined France’s concerns regarding the grave deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Syria, particularly in Idlib province and eastern Ghouta. Civilian access to humanitarian aid must remain a top priority.”
The president’s office added that Mr Macron had reminded the Turkish leader of the urgent need for the international community to focus on the ongoing battle against ISIS, as well as the need to protect civilians caught in the crossfire.
Mr Macron’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also urged Turkey to remain cool-headed and exercise “restraint” in its offensive against Kurdish militias.
Mr Le Drian said that while he “understood” that Turkey wanted to secure its shared border with its war-ravaged neighbour, the military operation in Afrin had inevitably triggered a new and unnecessary wave of violence in the region.
Without a political solution to the multi-faceted civil war in Syria, he warned, the region could explode again, with conflicts “just as dramatic” as the war on ISIS.
Turkish government officials, for their part, say that the aim of ‘Operation Olive Branch’ is to create a 30km “safe zone” within Syria to protect their border.