Erdogan rebuffs Moscow’s call to hand Afrin to Syrian government
Russia wants Turkey to hand control of Afrin province to Damascus, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the territory will be returned to local residents at Ankara’s discretion.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday rejected a call by Moscow to hand control of Afrin province to the Syrian government, saying Ankara would withdraw its forces when it felt the time was right.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an April 9 news conference that Moscow expects Turkey to relinquish Afrin to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after having driven out the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in March. He asserted that Erdogan had “never said that Turkey wants to occupy Afrin.”
