Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has filed a criminal complaint against a French magazine after it accused him of conducting ethnic cleansing in northeast Syria, state-owned Anadolu Agency said on Friday.

Erdogan sent troops into northeast Syria on Oct. 9 to attack Kurdish YPG forces, which he views as terrorists linked to Kurdish insurgents operating inside Turkey.

Under a ceasefire plan now in force, the YPG is required to withdraw from an area within 30 km (19 miles) of the Turkish border. Ankara hopes to create a “safe zone” there where it can resettle Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey.

Turkey’s Western allies condemned its offensive and have expressed concerns that repatriating the refugees will change the demographic composition of the border area, much of which has a Kurdish majority.

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