German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party won a state election by large margin, exit polls said Sunday, in an early setback to center-left hopes of unseating her in the September national vote.

Early results from the voting in Saarland state had Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) leading with 40 percent while the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) had around 30 percent.

The SPD was facing its first electoral test since nominating Martin Shultz to face off against Merkel in September.

The party has seen a recent surge in popularity.

Merkel is expected to run for fourth term as chancellor.
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The U.S. State Department has “strongly condemned” the detention of hundreds of protesters throughout Russia including the country’s opposition leader on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of Russians demonstrated in cities across the country in support of a call by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny for accountability among Russia’s elite.  Nearly 500 people were detained around Moscow’s Pushkin square, including Navalny, for protesting without permission.

“Detaining peaceful protesters, human rights observers, and journalists is an affront to core democratic values,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.

He said the United States was “troubled” by the arrest of Navalny, who has announced plans to run for president in the 2018 election.

Navalny, a Kremlin critic, was detained as he arrived to join the Moscow rally. Reports from the scene say police put him in a truck that was surrounded by hundreds of protesters who tried to open its doors and halt the arrest.

The protests appeared to be the largest coordinated outpouring of dissatisfaction since the massive 2011-2012 demonstrations following a fraud-tainted parliamentary election.

“This is an  important event!  We came here to express our position as citizens,” said one protester who just gave her first name-Alina.  “We came to remain citizens of our country.”

“By my presence here, I stand against the corruption of the incumbent power,” said another protester who only gave his first name-Maxim.  “The authorities do not feel like talking to their people, they communicate only through force-applying methods.”  

Navalny called the demonstrations after publishing a detailed report earlier this month accusing Prime Minister  Dmitry Medvedev of amassing a collection of mansions, yachts and vineyards through a shadowy network of non-profit organizations.

The report has been viewed over 11 million times on YouTube.  Medvedev has not reacted to it so far.

Navalny said on his official website that 99 Russian cities planned to protest, but that in 72 of them local authorities did not give permission.

There was scant coverage of the demonstrations on Russia’s official media.  A short report on Tass said a police officer was injured during an “unauthorized” rally in Moscow.

Navalny, who has announced his intention to run for president in next year’s election, has been rallying supporters in major Russian cities in recent weeks.
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A state election Sunday in western Germany offers Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives a tough test against their resurgent center-left rivals six months before Merkel seeks a fourth term in a national vote.

The election for the state legislature in Saarland, a region of just less than 1 million people on the French border that Merkel’s Christian Democrats have led since 1999, is the first of three regional votes before Germany’s September 24 national vote.

Test for Merkel, Schulz

It’s being watched closely as the first electoral test since the center-left Social Democrats nominated Martin Schulz as Merkel’s challenger in January.

Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament but a newcomer to national politics, has boosted his party’s long-moribund poll ratings and injected it with new self-confidence. He’s offering a classic though often vague center-left pitch of tackling economic inequality at home.

That boost means that a fourth Merkel term no longer looks inevitable — and it also has tightened the race in Saarland.

Conservative governor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer until recently looked certain to win a new five-year term. But Social Democrat rival Anke Rehlinger now hopes to finish first, and polls suggest she could win a majority for an alliance with the opposition Left Party.

The two women currently govern together in a “grand coalition” of the biggest parties, an alliance similar to Merkel’s at the national level.

Governor’s race important

Kramp-Karrenbauer is one of only five conservative governors in Germany’s 16 states. Losing her would be a worrying signal for the national campaign and for two bigger state elections in May — in Schleswig-Holstein and Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, both led by the Social Democrats.

Merkel has barely mentioned Schulz so far, but warned at a rally in Saarland on Thursday against a left-wing coalition there.

“We don’t want the clocks to go back on Sunday; we want the clocks to be put forward,” she said.
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Francois Fillon’s aides used an umbrella to shield him from eggs thrown by protesters in southwest France on Saturday as the beleaguered conservative fell further behind centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-rightist Marine Le Pen in opinion polls.

The contrast between former front-runner Fillon, embroiled in a financial scandal, and new poll favorite Macron was striking as both candidates campaigned 29 days before the first round of France’s unpredictable presidential election.

Addressing a rally in the French island of La Reunion, in the Indian ocean, Macron departed from typical campaign speeches by inviting members of the audience — including a 6-year old who asked him “How do you get to be president?” — on stage to ask questions on a wide range of issues.

“It’s historic, we need to decide whether we want to be afraid of the century that has just started … or want to bring fresh ambition to France,” the 39-year-old former investment banker said to chants of “Macron President!”

Macron, a former economy minister to Socialist President Francois Hollande, set up his own centrist party last year.

Macron leads in polls

He has shot to first place in opinion polls since Fillon was put under investigation over suspicions he misused public funds by paying his wife hundreds of thousands of euros as a parliamentary assistant for work she may not have done. Fillon denies any wrongdoing.

Fillon slipped to 17 percent in a BVA poll published Saturday, which saw Macron getting 26 percent of the first-round vote, up 1 percentage point from a week ago with Le Pen at 25 percent, down one point.

The number of undecided voters for the first round remains high, with 40 percent of voters still undecided.

The poll showed Macron winning a second round vote with 62 percent of the vote versus 38 percent for Le Pen, who is to hold a rally in the northern France city of Lille on Sunday.

The poll was carried out partly before a TV interview Thursday night in which Fillon, 63, accused Hollande of leading a smear campaign against him.

Voters throw eggs, bang pans 

Met by some 30 protesters throwing eggs and banging pots and pans to shouts of “Fillon in prison” in the southwest France town of Cambo-les-Bains, Fillon told reporters: “Those protests are an insult to democracy … the more they protest, the more French voters will support me.”

Meanwhile, a faction of the centrist UDI party, which is allied with Fillon’s The Republicans, was kicked out of the party Saturday for rallying behind Macron.

The BVA poll also showed far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon gaining ground in the first round, up 2 points from a week earlier to 14 percent, now 2.5 points ahead of the ruling Socialist Party’s candidate Benoit Hamon.
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Tens of thousands of pro-EU demonstrators rallied in London, despite heightened concerns about the terrorism threat, to mark the European Union’s 60th anniversary — just days before Britain’s exit from the EU is expected to formally begin.

Organizers said about 80,000 people joined the march calling for Britain to stay in the EU on March 25.

The demonstration came four days before British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would formally start Britain’s exit negotiations by invoking Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.

Hundreds of blue EU flags were carried by protesters in the procession as it stretched through central London.

Banners carried by the demonstrators had slogans like “I am European,” and “I’m 15 — I want my future back!”

The protesters fell silent as they moved through Parliament Square, where a British-born terrorist earlier this week drove a car through crowds of people before crashing into a fence and stabbing a police officer to death.

One banner raised in front of Britain’s Parliament said, “Terrorism won’t divide us — Brexit will.”

About 10,000 EU supporters also marched in Rome on March 25 while about 4,000 gathered in Berlin.

Some material for this report came from AFP, BBC and AP.
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Riot police in the Belarusian capital have raided the office of a human-rights group hours ahead of an attempt by opposition activists to mount a large protest march.

Authorities banned the demonstration planned for Saturday afternoon and dozens of police detention trucks were deployed in the center of Minsk.

The authoritarian former Soviet republic has seen an unusually persistent wave of protests over the past two months against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled since 1994. After tolerating the initial protests, authorities cracked down. Lukashenko this week alleged that a “fifth column” of foreign-supported agitators was trying to bring him down.

About midday Saturday, police raided the office of the Vesna human rights group. About 30 people were detained, said Oleg Gulak of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, another rights organization.
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Leaders of the European Union met in Rome Saturday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty and demonstrate that the EU can survive the impending departure of major power Britain.

Under heavy security as the Italian capital braced for anti-EU protests later in the day and the risk of attacks such as that by an Islamic State follower in London last week, the 27 national leaders gathered in the Campidoglio palace where the six founding states signed the Treaty of Rome, March 25, 1957.

Britain absent

Conspicuous by her absence was British Prime Minister Theresa May, who will write to EU summit chairman Donald Tusk on Wednesday formally to announce that its second-biggest economy will leave the Union in negotiations over the coming two years.

Britain shunned the new European community at its creation, but finally joined in 1973. Its people voted to quit last June.

Without the so-called Brexit, it might have been a modestly hopeful summit in the palazzo where old foes France and Germany, with Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, signed the original treaty.

All the bloc’s economies are growing after a slump that has blighted the past decade and recent border chaos has largely abated as refugees are, for now, being held in check.

But Brexit has undermined the self-confidence of a union that has helped bring peace and growing prosperity to the continent, and has encouraged eurosceptic nationalists challenging governments from Stockholm to Sicily.

Frictions amplified

It has also amplified the petty frictions among the more than two dozen national governments and obliged leaders’ aides to water down a grand birthday declaration of unity.

After days of carping from Poland and Greece, seeking to show home voters they were getting Brussels to give assurances about equal treatment and social welfare, the Rome Declaration the 27 will sign just before noon (1100 GMT) offers ringing phrases about peace and unity.

“We have united for the better,” the text concludes. “Europe is our common future.”

But it may disappoint those who think more ambition and coordination is the answer to malaise.

At the Vatican Friday, Pope Francis told them that their union had achieved much in 60 years but that Europe faced a “vacuum of values.” He condemned anti-immigrant populism and extremism that he said posed a mortal threat to the bloc. 
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The man who killed four people outside Britain’s Parliament was in Saudi Arabia three times and taught English there, the Middle Eastern country’s embassy said. 

A Saudi Embassy statement released late Friday said that Khalid Masood taught English in Saudi Arabia from November 2005 to November 2006 and again from April 2008 to April 2009. 

The embassy said that he had a work visa. It said he returned for six days in March 2015 on a trip booked through an approved travel agent.

The Saudi Embassy said that he wasn’t tracked by the country’s security services and didn’t have a criminal record there.

Before taking the name Masood, he was known as Adrian Elms. He was known for having a violent temper in England and had been convicted at least twice for violent crimes.

Masood, who at 52 is considerably older than most extremists who carry out bloodshed in the West, had an arrest record dating to 1983. The violence came later, first in 2000 when he slashed a man across the face in a pub parking lot in a racially charged argument after drinking four pints, according to a newspaper account.

Masood’s last conviction was in 2003, also involving a knife attack. It’s not clear when he took the name Masood, suggesting a conversion to Islam. 

Hundreds of British police have been working to determine his motives and possible accomplices. Two people remain in custody for questioning. They are two men, aged 27 and 58, who were arrested in the central English city of Birmingham, where Masood was living. Authorities haven’t charged or identified the two men. Others who were arrested in connection with the investigation have been released.

Details about how he became radicalized aren’t clear. His time in Saudi Arabia may provide clues. He was also jailed in Britain and may have become exposed to radical views while an inmate.
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As police race to identify what motivated a 52-year-old British-born father to carry out Wednesday’s attack at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, a debate is simmering over issues of identity, religion and immigration — hot topics in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union.

With police and press helicopters still buzzing overhead, thousands of Londoners gathered Thursday night in Trafalgar Square to grieve for the victims but also to express determination that life in the city will carry on as normal.

Musharaf Ahmed was one of hundreds of Muslims attending the vigil.

“These attacks — they don’t have any space in Islam,” he said. “Islam teaches the opposite. Islam teaches peace. The meaning of Islam is peace.”

The attacker, Khalid Masood, was a Muslim convert, born and raised just outside London under the name Adrian Russell Elms.

Masood, a father of three, had previous convictions for violence but no history of terrorism.

The Islamic State group claimed online that its propaganda inspired the attack. The head of the London Metropolitan Police Counterterrorism unit Mark Rowley said Friday major questions remain unanswered.

“What led him to radicalize?” he asked. “Was it through influences in our community, influences from overseas or through online propaganda?”

Those questions echo the same deep concerns in the wake of the London bombings in July 2005 also carried out by British citizens. Who is to blame? The state, or the community? Professor Lee Marsden of the University of East Anglia has studied motivating factors behind past terror incidents.

“I think it’s very easy to try to apportion blame,” Marsden said. “But the reality is with lone-wolf attacks, or when people are below the radar, these type of events can occur.”

The Westminster attack came at a volatile moment. Populist, anti-immigrant groups are energized by Britain’s exit from the European Union. Within hours of the attack, leaders of the far right UK Independence Party blamed immigration, even though the attacker was born in the UK.

“Groups which are in mainstream political life, particularly on the right wing of political parties, will use this event to try to pursue an anti-immigrant agenda,” Marsden said.

“As we saw in Brexit,” he added, “a lot of the debate around immigration was not specifically around Eastern European immigration which is clearly the main result of the European Union, but actually an opportunity to attack ethnic minorities within the country.”

Hayyan Bhaba, an adviser to the government on extremism, said it is vital to break down the divisions in British society. Engaging in conversation “between a lot of the frustrated communities” and having a positive dialogue can lead to “common ground,” he added.

Analysts say those divisions extend beyond Britain and across Europe as the continent struggles with issues of immigration and integration.

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo drew a link Thursday between the London attack and European Union migrant policy, claiming the assault vindicated Warsaw’s refusal to take in refugees.
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WATCH: Latvia-Russia Ties Shaped by Soviet History, Marred by Politics
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Russian President Vladimir Putin wished French far-right leader Marine Le Pen “good luck” for next month’s presidential election, a close aide to the National Front candidate said after the two met in the Kremlin on Friday.

“He wished her good luck for the presidential election,” Ludovic de Danne, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters from Moscow.

“We felt they understood each other, they were on the same wave length,” he said in a phone interview.

The meeting lasted about an hour and a half, and focused mostly on international affairs including the fight against terrorism and very little on the French election, de Danne said.

De Danne, who advises Le Pen on international affairs for her presidential bid, added that the pair did not discuss the financing of Le Pen’s campaign.

Last week, Le Pen’s party mocked centrist candidate and favorite Emmanuel Macron for traveling to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela by Merkel. “Mr. Macron is in a competition with Mr. Fillon to be Mrs. Merkel’s top vassal,” said Florian Philippot, Le Pen’s deputy, at the time.

Asked how the Putin-Le Pen meeting was different from the Macron-Merkel one, de Danne said: “Macron-Merkel it’s the declining establishment, Le Pen and Putin represent the freedom of the people, cooperation in a multi-polar world.”
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday warned Western nations against destabilizing the political situation in Macedonia.

His comments to a Moscow news conference came less than two days after the European Union’s enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, visited Skopje in another bid to help break a political deadlock that has left the country’s parties unable to form a government since an election in December.

The crisis has sparked inter-ethnic tension, as three ethnic Albanian parties push for Albanian to be designated a second official language as a condition to joining any coalition government. That has led to daily protests for three weeks.

“The current situation in Macedonia — I’d even call it a crisis, in many respects provoked artificially — is leading to the situation when attempts are made to split the society,” Lavrov said, adding the West should realize “the danger of such attempts.”

He also said he found it perplexing that Russia’s activities in the Balkans were considered provocative. Russian relations with Balkan nations shouldn’t be a cause for concern in the West, he said.

Official: West should be concerned

In an apparent rebuke, Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki told VOA that the West should be very concerned.

“We can perfectly imagine that a global power like Russia would have interests pretty much everywhere around the world,” he told VOA’s Macedonian service after spending a day meeting with U.S. legislators in Washington.

“What really matters is what would be in the interest of the countries in the region,” he added. “Regarding Macedonia, we are clear that EU and NATO membership are our priority. And we would like to achieve these objectives because we believe that this is the best recipe for peace, stability and economic prosperity in our region. We remain committed to these goals.”

European Union leaders and analysts have said the mounting political confrontation in Macedonia could spin out of control, adding to increasing ethnic tensions across a destabilizing Balkans.

Clear message urged

Last week, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic warned of serious consequences if the European Union does not give western Balkan countries a clear message about joining the bloc, citing growing nationalism and pro-Russian sympathies in the region.

On Wednesday, Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic called for joint Serbian-U.S. military exercises.

On Monday, Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic said U.S.-led NATO allies have been supportive of an investigation into what Montenegrin prosecutors are calling a pro-Russian plot to overthrow the country’s pro-Western government to prevent it from joining the European military alliance.

US Senate’s approval needed

Montenegro’s bid to join NATO is awaiting approval from the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that Montenegro’s accession to NATO would create a contiguous border along the Adriatic coast.

“Since Montenegro borders five other Balkan nations, including NATO allies Croatia and Albania, its NATO membership will support greater integration, democratic reform, trade, security and stability with all of its neighbors,” he said.

The Montenegrin, Serbian and Macedonian ministers were in Washington for a State Department conference of the global coalition to defeat Islamic State.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Macedonian and Serbian services. Some information is from AP.
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London police on Thursday identified the attacker who killed four people near Parliament as Khalid Masood, a Briton who converted to Islam and had a lengthy criminal record for weapons possession and other charges.

Islamic State said Masood, 52, was a “soldier” of the extremist group who responded to its call to attack civilians and the military in countries allied with the United States in battling IS.

Masood had never been convicted of terrorist offenses, but British security officials said he had been investigated in the past “in relation to concerns about violent extremism.” Authorities said they thought he was acting alone Wednesday when he ran down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, a Thames River crossing leading to the Houses of Parliament, crashed his rented vehicle into a gate and fatally stabbed a policeman who tried to stop him.

Armed police shot and killed Masood moments later.

Raids across nation

In the hours after the attack, police conducted raids around the country in search of anyone who might have given support to Masood. Eight men and women were arrested Thursday on suspicion of planning terrorist acts.

The dead assailant, who was older than most Islamist attackers involved in recent spectacular terror attacks in Europe, had been a teacher of English and was known as a fanatical bodybuilder.

One of the civilians who was run down on the bridge, a 75-year-old man, died Thursday in a hospital, raising the casualty toll to four victims and Masood.

Although IS claimed responsibility for the attack, a statement posted online did not implicate the group in the planning or execution of the attack.

An Italian tourist who witnessed the carnage told reporters he saw Masood attack the policeman with two knives. “He gave [the officer] around 10 stabs in the back,” the visitor said.

Valiant efforts to resuscitate Constable Keith Palmer at the scene failed. The 48-year-old officer was a 15-year police veteran.

One American was among the dead: Kurt Cochran, 54, of Utah, who was in London with his wife to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. His wife, Melissa, was among the 30 people injured. Masood’s vehicle hit the Cochrans as they crossed Westminster Bridge.

The remaining victim of the attack was a British school administrator, Aysha Frade, 43.

London vigil

Mourners gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square on Thursday evening, about one kilometer from the crime scene, for a candlelight vigil. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, told the crowd of thousands that “those trying to destroy our shared way of life will never succeed.”

Khan said the vigil in the most recognizable public plaza in London was meant to honor the dead and injured, but also “to send a clear, clear message: Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.”

Mark Rowley, head of counterterrorism efforts for London’s Metropolitan Police Service, said the eight people arrested Thursday were picked up during searches at six separate locations, and that investigations were continuing in London, Birmingham and other parts of England. He declined to say whether or how those detained were involved in Wednesday’s attack.

“It is still our belief, which continues to be borne out by our investigation, that this attacker acted alone and was inspired by international terrorism,” Rowley told reporters.  

WATCH: British PM May Condemns Terror Attack on Parliament

Prime Minister Theresa May struck a defiant tone in discussing the attack Thursday before Parliament, telling British lawmakers that what London experienced was “an attack on free people everywhere.”

“Yesterday, an act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy, but today, we meet as normal, as generations have done before us and as future generations will continue to do, to deliver a simple message: We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism,” she said.

Victims’ homelands

May thanked Britain’s friends and allies around the world “who have made it clear that they stand with us at this time.” She said the victims included nationals of France, Romania, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Ireland, China, Italy and Greece, as well as the United States.

The U.N. Security Council in New York, chaired by British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, observed a moment of silence Thursday for the London victims.

“You may know that today there are victims in London from 11 nations, which goes to show that an attack on London is an attack on the world,” Johnson said. “I can tell you from my talks here in the United States with the U.S. government and with partners from around the world that the world is uniting to defeat the people who launched this attack and defeat their bankrupt and odious ideology.”

In London, Parliament’s session began with a minute of silence Thursday. Police officers stood in silence nearby outside the headquarters of the city’s Metropolitan Police.
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The Turkish foreign ministry says it has summoned Russia’s top diplomat in Turkey over the killing of one of its soldiers that has been blamed on a Syrian Kurdish group that Moscow is supporting. The dispute is putting increasing strain on rapprochement efforts between the countries.

The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned Thursday by the Turkish foreign ministry and warned that Turkey will retaliate against a Syrian Kurdish group if there is a repeat of Wednesday’s cross-border attack. The Turkish military claims that a sniper of the the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, killed one of its soldiers.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said in his weekly press briefing that Moscow was responsible for preventing such instances as its forces are deployed in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin region to monitor and prevent such occurrences.

“Steps that should be taken in order to prevent similar cases in the future” and a reprisal would be aimed at the Syrian Kurdish group if such an attack was repeated, said Muftuoglu.

Russian troops sent to Afrin

The Turkish army regularly shells Afrin, accusing the YPG and its political wing the PYD, of being terrorists, affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state. But Moscow has been courting the Syrian Kurdish groups.

This week, Russian forces were deployed in Afrin, despite protests by Ankara. The deepening dispute is casting a shadow over efforts to foster reconciliation between Ankara and Moscow, following a collapse in relations in 2015 after Turkish jets downed a Russian bomber operating from a Syrian airbase.

Former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served widely in the region, says the latest dispute over Afrin reveals the limitations of rapprochement efforts.

“Ankara is quite active in promoting the positive progress in relations.” Selcen said. “But practically speaking, there is no progress. In fact, we can even speak of deterioration with what we can see in Afrin.”

Peace talks set for Geneva

Turkish displeasure reportedly also was expressed to Russia’s charge d’affaires over pictures of senior Russian officers in Afrin wearing YPG insignias on their uniforms. Moscow’s deepening relations with the Syrian Kurds are causing growing unease in Ankara. Foreign ministry spokesman Muftuoglu also called on Moscow to close the political offices of the PYD in the Russian capital.

Ties could be further strained with Moscow lobbying for the inclusion of the PYD at next week’s U.N.-sponsored Syrian peace talks in Geneva. Ankara has been at the forefront of trying to block their participation, asserting that the PYD is a terrorist organization.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that it is very important to overcome Turkey’s resistance and include the Syrian Kurds in upcoming talks.
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