Turkey says Kurdish militias in Syria will be ‘eliminated’

Turkiye sees the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the main component of the United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – as a “terrorist” group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“Conditions in Syria have changed. We believe it’s only a matter of time before PKK/YPG is eliminated,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference in the capital Ankara on Monday.

Fidan warned against any Western support for Kurdish-led groups in Syria.

“If you [the West] have different aims in the region, if you want to serve another policy by using Daesh as an excuse to embolden the PKK, then there is no way for that, either,” he added, using an Arabic name for the ISIL (also known as ISIS) group.

Turkiye has long been rankled by US support for the Kurdish-led SDF in northern Syria.

But Washington has long seen the SDF, which spearheaded the fight against ISIL in 2019 and controls jails and camps in which the group’s fighters are held, as crucial to preventing a resurgence of the group.

New Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group has long had ties with Turkiye, told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.

Observers fear space could be left for ISIL fighters to regather strength after the overthrow of al-Assad.

The group has managed to survive in both Iraq and Syria despite the destruction of its so-called caliphate that lasted from 2014 to 2019.

“We discussed what we can do together against the threat of Daesh in Syria and the region,” Fidan said.

“[ISIL] is a poison for Muslim societies. Of course, using our religion to brutally kill people … [and] create chaos is not something we will remain silent about,” he added.

“It is very important that [ISIL] does not rise again.”