Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, 2017. Photo: AP
ISTANBUL,— Turkey called on the United States to end its support for a Kurdish militia in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northern Syria as the two countries held talks on Monday aimed at preventing a fresh Turkish invasion.
“The US should positively answer our request to end its partnership with the YPG in Syria,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.
The statement came as defence officials from the United States sat down with their counterparts in Ankara for last-ditch talks aimed at creating a “safe zone” in northern Syria to keep the YPG away from Turkey’s border.
Washington has supported the YPG as the main fighting force against the Islamic State group in Syria.
But Ankara sees it as an offshoot of the Kurdish PKK, which has fought a bloody insurgency inside Turkey for the past 35 years.
Turkey has so far been unimpressed with the details of the US “safe zone” plan in Syria and has renewed threats to launch a cross-border offensive if the talks fail to reach a “satisfactory” conclusion.
“We can only be patient for so long. That patience will come to an end,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.
He repeated a threat he has persistently made for the past 18 months to launch an offensive east of the Euphrates River against the YPG.
Turkish media has regularly shown images in recent weeks of military convoys heading for the border area, carrying equipment and fighting units.
Turkey has launched two previous offenses into Syria against the Kurdish YPG, in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
In 2016, the Turkish troops entered northern Syria in an area some 100 km east of Afrin to stop the Kurdish YPG forces from extending areas under their control and connecting Syrian Kurdistan’s Kobani and Hasaka in the east with Afrin canton in the west.
In January 2018, Turkish military forces backed pro-Ankara Syrian mercenary fighters to clear the YPG from its northwestern enclave of Afrin. In March 2018, the operation was completed with the capture of the Kurdish city of Afrin.
The flags of Turkey and Syrian rebel groups were raised in the Kurdish Afrin city and a statue of Kurdish hero Kawa, a symbol of resistance against oppressors, was torn down.
Residents of the Kurdish city and Human right groups accuse Turkey and pro-Ankara fighters of kidnappings for ransom, armed robberies and torture.
Turkey fears the creation of a Kurdish autonomous region or Kurdish state in Syrian Kurdistan could encourage separatism amongst its own Kurds, according to analysts.
Analysts believe that Turkey is using the YPG as a pretext to invade Syrian Kurdistan and to undermine the Kurdish autonomous regions.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Washington has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces expelled the Islamic State group from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.
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