Turkey started so-called "Operation Peace Spring" on October 9 against the Kurdish-led forces, claiming that the operation was of vital importance to its national security and was its right under international law.

"The federal government has announced that it cannot identify any reasons that would legitimize the operation under international law," Maria Flachsbarth, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ,) said, in a response to questions from left-wing Die Linke lawmaker Helin Evrim Sommer.

“The fact that the federal government has, for the first time, officially announced that it does not recognize any reasons which legitimize Turkey’s attacks against the democratic self-administration in North-East Syria under international law is to be welcomed,” Tagesspiegel cited Sommer as saying.

“This is a diplomatically packaged but resounding slap in the face for the regime of [President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” she said.

Turkey's operation early last year provoked international outrage as Ankara targeted Kurdish-led groups that had fought in the front lines against the Islamic State (IS), with the operation labeled as an invasion by many Western politicians and the press.

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