ERBIL, Kurdistan Region-- French President Francois Hollande warned on Friday that Turkey is running the risk of starting a war with Russia.

"Turkey is involved in Syria... There, there is a risk of war," Hollande told France Inter radio according to AFP. "That is why the [UN] Security Council is meeting."

The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting on Friday, which was requested by Moscow, to discuss Turkey's call for deploying ground troops to Syria's north.

Turkey has recently been bombarding Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria and is frantically opposed to the prospect of the Russian-backed Syrian military or the Russian, and American-backed YPG closing off the remaining northwestern Syrian border, since it would effectively choke the supply lines to many armed opposition groups it supports in that country.

Hollande also said that "Russia will be unable to cope if it unilaterally supports [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad," and accordingly said that "pressure" should be put on the Kremlin to negotiate an end to Syria's war.

Rudaw