The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, urged Turkey, on behalf of the EU, on Wednesday evening, 9 October, to “cease the unilateral military action” in north-eastern Syria, recalling that a lasting solution to the Syrian conflict could not be found militarily (see EUROPE 12345/13).
Turkey is leading an offensive against Kurdish groups, allies of the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) organisation, which it considers to be terrorists, unlike the EU or the United States.
“Turkey’s security concerns should be addressed through political and diplomatic means, not military action, in accordance with international humanitarian law”, the Twenty-Eight said in their statement.
“Renewed armed hostilities in the north-east will further undermine the stability of the whole region, exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements”, they warned. Moreover, while an agreement on the creation of a constitutional committee was announced at the end of September (see EUROPE 12336/14), this offensive makes the prospects of the UN-led political process to achieve peace in Syria “more difficult”, the statement said.
Europeans also recall that Turkish unilateral action threatens the progress made by the global coalition against IS, of which Turkey is a member. According to them, it will “indeed undermine the security of the Coalition’s local partners and risk protracted instability in north-east Syria, providing fertile ground for the resurgence of Da’esh. [...] The secure detention of terrorist fighters is imperative in order to prevent them from joining the ranks of terrorist groups”, warned Ms Mogherini.
Ankara justifies its offensive by creating a ‘safe zone’, but Europeans consider it “unlikely” that this zone, as envisaged by Turkey, “would satisfy international criteria for refugee return as laid down by UNHCR”. The return of the latter and displaced persons to their places of origin must be safe, voluntary and dignified, where conditions permit, the High Representative recalls, adding that any attempt at demographic change would be “unacceptable”. “The EU will not provide stabilisation or development assistance in areas where the rights of local populations are ignored”, she also warns.
On the evening of 9 October, during a debate in the European Parliament on this offensive, Ms Mogherini recalled that the European Foreign Ministers would meet, on Monday 14 October, at their Council meeting in Luxembourg, with the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, to discuss the situation. She said that, in the meantime, Europeans would use the next few hours and days “to press for the cessation of this intervention, which is not going in the right direction”. An urgent debate in the UN Security Council was scheduled to take place on Thursday 10 October, at the request of France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and Poland.
For their part, most representatives of the political groups in the European Parliament called on the EU to act, beyond condemnation. Kati Piri (S&D, Netherlands) called for “all punitive tools” at the EU's disposal to be used to ensure that Turkey complies with international standards, while Alice Kuhnke (Sweden), for the Greens, called for arms exports to Turkey to be stopped. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)