Macron says European leaders to meet with Erdoğan again

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Dec. 4 that French, British and German leaders will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan early next year to discuss Syria, Libya and other issues. 

“I'm very happy that we had a very useful meeting yesterday with British Prime Minister, Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and President Erdoğan," Macron said during a news conference after the NATO leaders’ summit in London.

The meeting, which helped clarify various issues, also “allowed us … to reaffirm our priority in fighting [ISIL], and our common commitment to the refugee issue and a political solution to the Syrian conflict,” the French leader said, in remarks translated into English.

Erdoğan on Dec. 3 met Macron and Merkel, alongside host Johnson at the residence of the prime minister at 10 Downing Street. 

The leaders discussed the latest developments in Syria and exchanged views on Turkey's operation targeting YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria.

The meeting “started a very useful dialogue and clarified certain misunderstandings with Turkey,” Macron said.

However, the French leader reiterated his opposition to classifying PKK terrorist Syrian offshoot YPG as a terror group.

“We’re combatting the PKK and those groups that are fighting against Turkey directly. But we’re not equating these different political and military groups to each other. So, we disagree on this. And that has not been changed,” said Macron.

However, he added: “When ... certain groups do have terrorist intentions on Turkish soil against the Turkish country, [for us] there's no ambiguity about the fact that we will fight against those groups,” he added.