"While recognizing Turkey's security needs, the President of the Republic told his Turkish counterpart of his concern over the military intervention launched Saturday in the canton of Afrin," the office of the French presidency said in a statement.
Turkey's General Staff announced the beginning of the campaign, Operation Olive Branch, on Saturday. Turkey is targeting Kurdish forces it says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, sending dozens of warplanes, according to reports.
Damascus has called the operation a violation of its sovereignty, and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis told reporters Tuesday that "The violence in Afrin disrupts what was a relatively stable area in Syria and distracts from the international effort to defeat [Daesh]," during his tour of Asia.
