Turkey says Russia has postponed Syria peace conference
Turkey says the Kremlin has decided to postpone a planned peace conference on Syria that was scheduled to be held in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi on November 18.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Sunday that the meeting had been delayed and Syrian Kurdish groups such as the Democratic Union Party (PYD) would not be invited if it was to be held later.
“Russia told us that the meeting has now been postponed and that the PYD will not be invited,” the spokesman told broadcaster NTV in an interview.
Turkey had been troubled by the possible involvement of the PYD, which is considered by Ankara to be a terror organization.
“We immediately objected," Kalin said, adding, "The Kremlin then got in touch with us and said they were postponing the meeting.”
"So as of now, if there is no change, the meeting will not be taking place on November 18 but at a later date.”
Kurdish forces, mainly the PYD and its military wing the YPG, are currently in control of nearly all of Syria’s entire northern border with Turkey.
Ankara accuses the PYD of having links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.
Russia was planning to hold the Congress of Syrian National Dialogue in Sochi to bring together various parties to the conflict in Syria. The plan had been announced by Russia after the latest peace talks on Syria, which were also backed by Turkey and Iran, in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
Kazakhstan’s capital has hosted several rounds of peace talks on Syria since January.
Iran, Russia and Turkey, which serve as guarantor states in the peace process, plan to map out de-escalation zones in Syria’s militant-held northwestern province of Idlib, the central province of Homs and the Eastern Ghouta area outside of the capital Damascus, and exchange viewpoints on other matters such as prisoner exchange.
The talks in Astana have been going on in tandem with another series of talks held in Geneva and brokered by the UN.
Since early 2011, Syria has been experiencing a deadly conflict the government in Damascus blames on foreign sponsors of terrorism.
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