France will not gain in any way by retaining forces to protect a Kurdish militia in Syria, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, after Paris announced it would maintain a presence despite Washington’s pull-out announcement.
“There will be no benefit to anyone if France stays in Syria to protect” the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by state news agency Anadolu. Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a “terrorist offshoot” of Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey.