During an interview with the BBC which was released on Friday, January 27, Barzani said that Turkey cannot achieve its goals by fighting.

“We are deeply concerned and we do hope that this military operation would stop as soon as possible, because the fighting and wars are not solutions to the problem,” said Barzani.

When asked if he expected a role for the Peshmerga forces to support the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), Barzani said deploying Peshmerga to Afrin will not solve the problem.

“The best assistance we can offer is trying our best to stop the offensive,” Barzani added.

Turkey launched its military operation dubbed "Olive Branch" against the Kurdish forces on January 20, supporting Syrian rebels with ground troops, air strikes and artillery fire.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Turkey has launched 890 artillery attacks and airstrikes during its military offensive on Afrin.

As many as 59 civilians were killed and 134 others were wounded by Turkish attacks in six days of the operation, said SDF.

Peshmerga forces were ousted by Iraqi forces from areas disputed between Baghdad and Erbil, most notably the oil-rich Kirkuk city, after an independence referendum held by the Kurdish region.

Despite being allied to the western-backed coalition in anti-ISIS aggressions in Iraq, Kurdish forces were also not support by their allies. Neither Kurdistan nor the referendum were supported internationally.

Masoud Barzani, who stepped down from the office of the Presidency on November 1 after the vote, said he didn’t regret the referendum.

“I don’t regard it as a mistake, and I don’t regret the referendum, what happened in Kirkuk was the result of a betrayal of the Kurds within themselves,” he told the BBC.

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