The Turkish president compares the Kurdish YPG fighters to ISIL, saying neither group has a future in Syria.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey expects foreign countries to pull back on Kurdish fighters in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, while Germany warns of an escalation in fighting with Kurdish forces.
Speaking to reporters on the flight home from a summit in Egypt, Erdogan said there was no longer any reason for outsiders to support Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters. His comments were released by his office on Friday.
The YPG is the main force in a US-backed alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria. Turkiye sees the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has long fought against the Turkish state and has been labeled a “terrorist” group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.
In his remarks, Erdogan compared YPG fighters to ISIL (ISIS), an armed group also known as Daesh, and said neither group has a future in Syria.
“We do not believe that any power will continue to cooperate with terrorist organizations in the coming period. The leaders of terrorist organizations such as Daesh and PKK-YPG will be destroyed in the shortest possible time.”
The US still has 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria working with them SDF. The alliance played an important role on the ground in defeating ISIL forces in 2014-2017 with US air support and guard personnel still present ISIL fighters in prison camps.
Ankara, along with Syrian allies, has launched several cross-border offensives against the SDF in northern Syria, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington end support for the militants.
Hostilities have escalated since the overthrow of President al-Assad less than two weeks ago. Turkish and Syrian groups he supports captured the city of Manbij from the SDF on December 9, prompting the US to negotiate a fragile ceasefire.
Erdogan told reporters that Turkiye wanted to see a new Syria where all ethnic and religious groups could live in harmony. To achieve this, ISIL, “the PKK and its versions that threaten the survival of Syria must be eradicated,” he said.
Security for Kurds “essential”
Later on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told her Turkish counterpart that the security of the Kurdish people was crucial to Syria.
“Security, especially for Kurds, is essential for a free and secure future for Syria,” she told reporters after a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, while warning of the dangers of “escalation” with Kurdish forces in Syria.
Baerbock also warned of new violence in northern Syria.
“Thousands of Kurds from Manbij and other places are on the run in Syria or are afraid of new violence,” said the German minister. “I made it very, very clear today that our common security interests must not be jeopardized by an escalation with the Kurds in Syria.”
Fidan told Baerbock that it was crucial for Kurdish groups like the PKK and YPG to lay down their arms and disband, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said.
Meanwhile, a senior US diplomat said on Friday that Washington was pushing for a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the Syrian crisis town of Kobane, known as Kobane in Kurdish and Ain al-Arab in Arabic.
“We are working energetically on talks with the Turkish authorities, including with the SDF. “We believe the best path forward is a ceasefire around Kobani,” Barbara Leaf, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, told reporters after her first visit to Damascus since the fall of al-Assad.
