ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Canada has indefinitely extended a ban on arms sales to Turkey, implemented following the October incursion into Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria.

Charles-Marie Matte, deputy director of exports control division at the government’s global affairs department confirmed the extension of the ban in an email to Canadian outlet CBC, saying sales had been frozen “until further notice.”

Although approvals will be “presumptively denied,” Canada’s commitment to “international alliance commitments” may see permits approved under exceptional circumstances – including requests for a NATO missile system, Matte added.

Ankara has yet to comment on the decision.

A temporary ban on weapons sales to Ankara was introduced by Ottawa in October 2019, one week after Turkey launched a military offensive designed to clear the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) out of northeast Syria, known to Kurds as Rojava.

France, Germany, the Netherlands and several other countries suspended arms sales in the wake of the invasion, which was widely condemned by the international community.

The Turkish government views the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a main component of the SDF, as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) – a Kurdish armed group which has fought with Ankara for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey.

The October 2019 offensive was launched with the aim of creating a “safe zone” in which to resettle Syrian refugees being hosted by Turkey, which hosts the most of any other country.

However, thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in the operation .

Kurdish forces accused Turkey of carrying out ethnic cleansing by forcing Kurds and other minorities from their homes, repopulating the area with Syrians from elsewhere in the country.