EP uneasy with Turkey's fight against PKK’s Syrian affiliate

THE EUROPEAN Parliament (EP) adopted a non-binding motion that called on Turkey to end its military offensive against the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.

The motion, approved by the Members of European Parliament (MEPs), called on Turkey to "stop its offensive."

During a televised award ceremony in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan commented on European Parliament’s call, saying that the Turkish army would not be leaving Afrin "before our job is done."

Ankara said the cross-border operation will continue until the town is totally cleared from the PKK’s affiliates.

The resolution, which mainly focused on Syria in general, said that the "Assad regime, Russia and Iran must respect the 30-day cease-fire and bear the responsibility for the heinous crimes committed in Syria."

Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Ömer Çelik slammed the vote on Thursday, saying “it is an ignorant decision which lacks vision.”

Çelik added that, “The decision shows how distant the European Parliament is from what is happening in Syria on the field.”

Stating that they strongly condemn "all atrocities, shelling of civilians and widespread violations of human rights and international law committed in Syria during the seven-year conflict," MEPs also said the latest testimony of spiraling violence is the Syrian regime’s offensive against opposition-held Eastern Ghouta.

"Members of European Parliament call on all parties, and in particular Assad’s regime, Russia and Iran, to implement the 30-day cease-fire set by the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 24 and allow in humanitarian aid," they said.

They also stressed that the Syrian re- gime and its allies, Russia and Iran, are responsible under international law "for the heinous crimes they continue to commit in Syria and the economic consequences of their military interventions."

The repeated Russian vetoes in the Security Council on Syria and on efforts to renew U.N. investigations on chemical attacks in Syria are “shameful,” MEPs say, adding that “obstruction of the international investigations is more a sign of guilt than anything else.”

They also advocate creating a Syrian war crimes tribunal, pending a successful referral to the International Criminal Court.