The Turkish president compares the Kurdish YPG fighters to ISIL and says neither group has a future in Syria.
Turkey hopes foreign countries will withdraw aid to Kurdish fighters in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, as Germany warns of an increase in Kurdish fighters.
Speaking to reporters on a flight from a conference in Egypt, Erdogan said there is no longer any reason for outsiders to support the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). His comments were released by his office on Friday.
The YPG is the main group in the US-backed coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria. Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting Turkey for a long time and is called a “terrorist” group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.
In his speech, Erdogan compared YPG fighters to ISIL (ISIS), an armed group also known as Daesh, and said neither group has a future in Syria.
“In the coming period, we do not believe that any power will continue to cooperate with terrorist organizations. Terrorist leaders such as Daesh and PKK-YPG will be crushed in a very short time.”
The US still has 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria working with the SDF. The coalition played a key role in defeating ISIL forces in 2014-2017 with the support of US airstrikes and regular patrols. ISIL fighters in prisons.
Ankara, along with its Syrian allies, has carried out several attacks against the SDF in northern Syria while repeatedly demanding that NATO ally Washington stop supporting the fighters.
Violence has escalated since President al-Assad was ousted less than two weeks ago as Turkish and Syrian forces retook the city of Manbij from the SDF on December 9, prompting the US to impose a tough coalition agreement.
Erdogan told reporters that Turkey wants to see a new Syria where all ethnicities and religions can live in harmony. To achieve this, ISIL, “PKK and its variants, which threaten the survival of Syria, must be eliminated”, he said.
Kurds' defense 'necessary'
Later on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told her Turkish counterpart that the security of the Kurdish people is a top priority in Syria.
“Security, especially for the Kurds, is necessary for a free and secure future in Syria,” he told reporters after meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan while warning of the dangers of any “rising” by Kurdish forces in Syria.
Baerbock has also sparked new violence in northern Syria.
“Thousands of Kurds from Manbij and other places are fleeing Syria or fearing new attacks,” the German minister said. “I have made it clear today that our security interests must not be compromised by the rise of the Kurds in Syria.”
Fidan told Baerbock that it was important for Kurdish groups including the PKK and YPG to lay down their weapons and end, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador said on Friday that Washington is promoting an end to the fighting between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the Syrian city known as Kobane in Kurdish and Ain al-Arab in Arabic.
“We are working hard in negotiations with the Turkish authorities, as well as the SDF. We think that the best way forward is to end the fighting around Kobane,” Barbara Leaf, the US ambassador to the Middle East, told reporters shortly after visiting Damascus for the first time al-Assad fell.