Turkey stated Syria’s new insurgent authorities agrees with Ankara on the necessity to dismantle Kurdish army forces — a important US ally within the northern area of Syria — as international locations rush to form the way forward for the area after the downfall of the Assad regime.
Turkey and the US have lengthy been at loggerheads over Washington’s army and logistical help to Kurdish forces in Syria. The problem stays a precedence for Ankara amid talks on what Syria’s future will seem like beneath Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which now controls Syria, with Turkish officers saying Kurdish presence on the border is a serious safety concern.
“Within the new interval, the PKK/YPG terror organisation will probably be dissolved eventually,” Turkish Protection Minister Yasar Guler instructed reporters on Saturday. “Each the brand new administration in Syria and we wish this.”
No formal settlement has been introduced and Guler didn’t present additional particulars. It wasn’t instantly potential to confirm the data with officers within the transitional authorities in Syria. Whereas HTS, a breakaway faction of al-Qaeda, hasn’t explicitly commented on any discussions with the Turks over the Kurds, the group has repeatedly stated non secular minorities received’t be harmed beneath their rule.
Turkey, the US and the EU record the Kurdish militant group PKK, which has waged a decades-long armed marketing campaign in Turkey’s southeast, as a terror group. However in contrast to the US, Turkey additionally sees the YPG, one of many principal factions that make up the Washington-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, as an extension of the PKK.
The Kurdish situation topped the agenda throughout Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s go to to Ankara earlier this week, when he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan. Turkish officers have urged the US to assessment its help of the Kurdish militia. The US nevertheless, has relied on the SDF to stop potential resurgence of Islamic State, particularly within the post-Assad panorama.
Turkey desires the YPG to put down their arms in addition to the departure of its overseas members from Syria, Guler stated, as a way to pave the best way for his or her integration right into a future Syrian safety pressure. Any heavy weapons of their arms must also be taken again, he stated.
“It’s out of the query for the Syrian folks, or the brand new administration, or us to permit the PKK/YPG terrorist group to behave alone and create area for itself,” the minister stated. “Our precedence is the PKK/YPG terrorist group’s eradication. We expressed this clearly to our US buddies. We anticipate them to re-evaluate their positions.”
In response to Guler, Washington has but to reply to a Turkish proposal to allocate three commando brigades to imagine the duty of preventing IS and holding detainees in Syria as he downplayed the risk degree posed by the group, often known as Daesh.
“Has anybody heard of Daesh terrorists attacking in Syria within the final three years?” Guler stated. “We don’t hear or see something about Daesh proper now.”
Blinken stated Saturday that US officers had spoken instantly with HTS, in addition to different teams, on a set of ideas the US and Arab companions wish to information Syria’s political transition. Turkey and the US had been among the many nations issuing a joint assertion calling for an finish to hostilities in Syria throughout a summit in Jordan over the weekend.
“We expect it’s essential to see what the brand new administration will do and provides them an opportunity,” stated Guler, including that the insurgent authorities has assured its clear cooperation with worldwide establishments in the event that they detect chemical weapons.
In response to a query on whether or not Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest military after the US, would comply with a possible army coaching and cooperation deal, he stated: “We’re prepared to offer the mandatory help if requested by the brand new administration.”
