Turkey threatened Tuesday to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara's conditions for a "bloodless" transition after the fall of strongman president Bashar al-Assad.

Talks aimed at ending a 40-year-old militant conflict have fostered peace hopes in Turkey but the precarious situation of Kurdish forces in Syria and uncertainty about Ankara's intentions have left many Kurds anxious about the path ahead.

Turkey's top diplomat ruled out any role for French troops in Syria Friday, saying Washington was its only interlocutor as US officials sought to head off Turkish military action against

A key dam in northern Syria has become a flash point in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups

The fall of Bashar Assad to Islamist-led rebels has raised the prospect of Turkey intervening in Syria against Kurdish forces accused by Ankara of links to armed separatists.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that the new Syrian administration should be given an opportunity to address the presence of Kurdish militants in the country, and reiterated that the Turkish military would act if it did not.

Turkey is “reviewing and rethinking” its military and civilian presence in northern Syria following the fall of the Assad regime last month and the ascent of new authorities led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham,