Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday accused Paris of supporting terrorism, implying that France will face terrorist attacks, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
“France aids, abets and supports terrorism, and they host terrorists at the Élysée Palace. You cannot explain it and you cannot get rid of terrorism. Did you see what the terrorists did [the Münster attack] in Germany? The same will also happen in France,” Erdoğan said at a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) congress in the southwestern province of Denizli.
“As long as the West feeds these terrorists, it will sink,” he added.
In late March, President Emmanuel Macron met with a delegation from northern Syria that included the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia and reportedly offered to mediate between Turkey and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), assuring the SDF of Paris’s support in stabilizing northern Syria.
Reacting to the meeting Erdoğan slammed Macron, saying he hoped Paris would not ask Ankara to help when terrorists fleeing Iraq and Syria arrive in France.
“With this attitude, France has no right to complain about any terrorist organization, any terrorist, any terrorist attack. Those who sleep with terrorists, welcome them in their palaces, will understand sooner or later the mistake that they made,” said Erdoğan.
Turkey sees the YPG as the Syrian extension of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long battle against Turkish security forces in the country’s Southeast.
