Authorities in Syria’s Kurdish autonomous region said on Sunday they would not attend peace talks in Russia’s Sochi next week because of Turkey’s offensive against the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

“We said before that if the situation remained the same in Afrin we could not attend Sochi,” regional official Fawza al-Yussef said.

Backer of foreign-backed militant opposition, Turkey, is one of the sponsors of the talks in the Black Sea resort on Monday and Tuesday, along with Damascus allies Russia and Iran.

Turkey’s military offensive in Afrin “contradicts the principle of political dialogue”, Yussef said.

Turkey launched aggression “Olive Branch” on January 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition militants with ground troops and air strikes.

Ankara says the YPG is a “terrorist” offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is proscribed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

The Sochi talks come after multiple failed rounds of UN-brokered talks to end Syria’s seven-year war.

Source: AFP