FM hakan fidan says only’s a matter of time before YPG is elinimated in syria, urges wes to cease supporting group.
Turkiye’s foreign minister has stated that it is “only a matter of time” before Kurdish-led armed groups operating in Syria will be wiped out, and that Ankara will not agree to any situation in which the armed group YPG might maintain a presence there after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
So far, Turkiye has branded the YPG – the main component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – as a terrorist group linked to the outlawed PKK.
Syria’s circumstances have changed, and I believe that only a matter of time lies further until the PKK and the YPG is completely eliminated, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference in the capital Ankara on Monday.
Fidan also called on Western governments to refrain from supporting Kurdish-led groups in Syria.
“If you have alternative intentions over there… if you were trying to use Daesh as an excuse in order to support the PKK, then it’s not going to go ahead that way, either,” he said, using an Arabic name for the ISIL (also known as ISIS) group.
But Washington has long considered SDF, which led the fight against ISIL in 2019 and controls jails and camps where the group’s fighters are kept, key to prevent resurgent 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.
Fidan’s remarks came after his meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, during which they discussed the ISIL threat in Syria arising from the toppling of al-Assad by the HTS-led rebels.
There are fears that with the overthrow of al-Assad a breathing space would be left behind for ISIL to regather strength.
In Iraq and Syria, the group has managed to remain afloat since the collapse of the so-called caliphate, which had lasted from 2014 to 2019.
“We discussed what we can do together against the threat of Daesh in Syria and the region,” said Fidan.
“It is poison for Muslim societies. Of course, we will not remain silent while people are brutally killed using our religion and chaos is- created,” he added. “It is very essential that ISIL is prevented from being reborn.”
Fidan’s comments came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that the new rulers of Syria were determined to eradicate the YPG.
“With the revolution in Syria, the hopes of the separatist terrorist organization have hit the wall,” Erdogan stated, addressing his party on Sunday.
“The new administration in Syria has taken an extremely determined stance regarding the preservation of the country’s unity and territorial integrity,” he said.