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Wednesday 27 Jan 2016 - 16:59 Makkah mean time-17-4-1437
Ankara, (IINA) - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated on Tuesday that Ankara will boycott the UN-sponsored Syria peace talks in Geneva if the Democratic Union Party (PYD) is invited to the table, Anadolu Agency reported.
The PYD is the Syrian extension of the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S and the EU.
"Under what title will PYD sit at the table? Could a terrorist organization be a representative of [Syrian Kurdish] people?" he said during a live interview with Turkish private NTV news channel in Strasbourg, where he came to attend the Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
His remarks came days before the Syria peace talks, which is scheduled to be on Friday in Geneva, for which the invitations have been sent after delay by disagreements over which opposition factions should participate to decide on the political process to end the five-year-old conflict.
"Will Al-Qaeda and Nusra Front be able to take a seat at the table? The negotiation will be made between the opposition and the regime. Terrorist groups are out of the question", he stressed.
Cavusoglu reiterated Turkey's opposition against the involvement of the PYD or its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), in the peace negotiations.
Turkey’s top diplomat stressed that Ankara was previously promised that the PYD would not be included in the talks.
"They say the PYD will not be invited, but if it is invited we will certainly boycott the Geneva talks", he added. "[If it happens], it will also tarnish the opposition's reputation. It will not be an advantage but a disadvantage for them to be intimate with terrorist groups".
AG/IINA
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