TEV-DEM's Xelil appeals on France to prevent Turkish occupation

TEV-DEM co-chair Aldal Xelil has written an open-ed in the French paper Liberation in which he appeals to France to prevent the Turkish occupation of Northern Syria.

In his article in Liberation TEV-DEM co-chair Aldal Xelil writes: "Today, we have entered a new sequence of our history, just as important as the previous one: we must fight against the ideological sources of the radicalism advocated by Daesh. The persistence of this mentality constitutes a considerable danger for the future. This is the first thing we need to fight, otherwise we will see the return of extremism and new threats to the world."

Xelil adds that "we have seen that they could be the consequences in France of the mentality of which I speak. The terrorist operations against you were the result of the adoption by certain categories of your population of the thought and mentality of Daesh - despite the absence of a military headquarters of ISIS in France. For us, this confirms the idea that the only military victory is insufficient against a danger of this type."

Recognising that "France is an important country that has fully contributed to the fight against extremism", Xelil adds that "this victory is threatened by the expansionist aims of Turkey on these regions we have liberated. To justify his attacking us, Erdogan constantly claims that we are attacking him, which is totally wrong, everyone knows it."

Xelil continues saying that "for us, it is clear that it has the will to invade us to slow down the progress of our total fight against terrorism - a struggle that all of our people, with all its components, leads to the side of the international coalition. Turkey is a real danger, be convinced of it."

In fact, says Xelil "Erdogan wants to deepen their occupation and strengthen their control over everything they can from Syria."

Addressing directly the French public opinion and government Xelil writes: "We deeply hope that French public opinion is aware of this danger and that President Emmanuel Macron, as well as the team he has set up to follow the Syrian file, are convinced of the danger represented by Erdogan, who is constantly also to use the map of refugees living at home as a weapon of retaliation against Europe."

Recognising that "the challenge we face right now is a difficult challenge", Xelil says: "To achieve this, we need clear positions from our friends. Positions to support our people in their democratic experience, in their efforts to stabilize the region, in their fight against extremism in its different forms. Any Turkish attack on our region would threaten these goals together with the democratic values ​​of our respective countries and the rest of the world."

The French government, says Xelil "can reduce these risks by preventing Turkey from attacking us. That's what we ask him."