Kurds invited to join Syria peace

Russia said Monday it has invited Kurds to take part in an upcoming Syrian peace congress in Sochi despite a Turkish offensive against Kurdish militia in northern Syria."Kurdish representatives have been included on the list of Syrians invited to participate in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress which will take place in Sochi next week," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Together with regime backer Iran and rebel supporter Turkey, Russia -- a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- wants to convene a peace conference with the aim of agreeing a new constitution for post-war Syria.

The peace talks have been planned for January 29 and 30.

Moscow initially hoped to convene peace talks in Sochi last November but those efforts collapsed following a lack of agreement among co-sponsors.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the time to fumed at the prospect of inviting to the conference the Syrian Kurdish group the PYD and its armed wing, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Without referring to Kurdish militia by name, Erdogan said in November: "We cannot consider a terrorist gang with blood on their hands a legitimate actor."