(VOVworld) -  Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday that Turkey will boycott UN-backed peace talks on Syria scheduled for later this week in Geneva, Switzerland, if the Syrian Kurdish group Democratic Union Party (PYD) is invited.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu addresses a press conference in Ankara, on January 25, 2016 (Photo: AFP)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov strongly protested Turkey’s demand to exclude the PYD Party from participating in the talks. Mr. Lavrov said the PYD Party is essential to the talks' success. Lavrov also objected to suggestions that Moscow was calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign but granting him with political asylum rights. Meanwhile, PYD leader Saleh Muslim said his party has not received an invitation from the UN.