INTERVIEW
Can the international community thwart Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plans and help the Kurds? While the Turkish president's offensive against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria has already killed 15 people and led to the flight of several thousand civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) , international reactions have increased, between convictions and threats of US sanctions, before an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council scheduled for Thursday.
Invited from Europe 1, journalist Caroline Fourest calls in particular for a ban on flying over northern Syria. "The opposite would be an absolute moral and military betrayal," she denounces.
"France is rather the country most faithful to our Kurdish allies and has already intervened several times so that the Americans do not withdraw," says the journalist, whose film Sisters of Arms , in theaters since Wednesday, tells the story fighting Kurdish fighters against ISIS troops. But for the essayist, "today, we have to be even firmer, we must stop being intimidated by the Turks".
"We risk ethnic cleansing"
"It is not acceptable to abandon our allies," insists Caroline Fourest, who fears that any initiative of the UN Security Council is blocked by a Russian veto. "We must obtain the prohibition to fly over northern Syria so that the Turks can not bomb our allies or civilians," she asks, "this is the minimum." And to conclude: "the opposite would be a moral and military treason absolutely atrocious".
The Turkish offensive is "a disaster", says the journalist, according to which "we risk a massacre, even an ethnic cleansing". For Caroline Fourest, the consequences of Erdogan's decision could also have serious consequences for security in France. "All Daesh prisoners are going to nature," she fears.