France discusses fate of detained journalist, Syria with Turkey's Erdoğan

PARIS - Reuters

AFP photo

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Aug. 27 with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan about efforts to free a French journalist detained in the country, and the two leaders also discussed the Syrian crisis.

A statement from Macron's office on Aug. 27 said Macron had demanded the release and return to France of journalist Loup Bureau, who was seized by Turkish border guards on the frontier with Iraq in early August.

"The two presidents agreed to make further contact, and at the ministerial level as well, in order to arrive at a positive outcome," the statement from the Elysee Palace said of the journalist's plight.

They also discussed the situation in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf region as well as the battle against terrorism, with France working to create a specialist contact group to discuss Syria on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly.

Bureau, 27, was detained on July 26 at the Habur border post after he crossed into the country from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. He is accused of “aiding and assisting a terrorist organization” with links to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a terror group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

A local court ordered his arrest on Aug. 2 and he was sent to prison in Şırnak.