Russia-backed Syrian peoples congress postponed, Turkey's Pres Spox Kalın

Moscow's invitation to a Syrian National Dialogue Congress initially set for Nov. 18 has been postponed to a later date, Turkey's Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalın said Sunday.

Kalın said that Turkey was in the middle of deciding whether to accept or decline the invitation to the congress when news came it had been postponed.

"We found out that the congress was announced as a fait accompli. We immediately objected", he told news channel NTV. "Afterwards, the Kremlin contacted us and stated that they had postponed this meeting."

Kalın said that Turkey will not be attending the meetings but may send an observer.

"It's not certain yet. But what Russia has told us is that the meeting has been postponed now and the PYD would not be invited," he added.

Kalın previously stated that the invitation of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, is unacceptable for Turkey.

The PYD controls large swathes in northern Syria as the Assad regime transferred the control of predominantly Kurdish areas bordering Turkey to the terrorist group in the early stages of the Syrian civil war. Since then, the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group dominated by PYD and its armed wing People's Protection Forces (YPG), has expended its control over almost one-thirds of Syrian territory, including predominantly Arab regions, thanks to U.S.-backed coalition's support in the pretext of fighting the Daesh terrorist group despite Turkey's objections.

Moscow invited all Syrian opposition forces to attend the planned congress in the city of Sochi, Russia's foreign minister said Friday.

During the last round of Syria peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana late last month, three guarantor countries -- Russia, Turkey and Iran -- agreed to discuss proposals for holding a national dialogue conference.

However, the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee and the Syrian Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces both appear to have declined invitations to attend the gathering.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, according to UN figures.