The President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, has criticised Turkey’s military incursion in the northwest Syrian region of Afrin, the Turkish news site Arti Gercek reported on Wednesday.

Radev spoke about Turkey’s Afrin operation on Jan. 22, exactly a year after he was sworn in as president. He spoke of his concerns about the civilian casualties incurred by Turkey’s attack, which he said could heighten the tensions in Syria and “lead to serious difficulties”.

The responsibility lay with the European Union to intervene on the situation, to avoid the problems flying back to strike the union “like a boomerang”, said the Bulgarian president.