ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) believe that Turkey unilaterally administering a safe zone between the areas it controls in northern Syria would violate international norms.
"According to the buffer zone and its laws, there must be a third side represented by the UN as happened in Slovakia, Kosovo and al-Kuwait," said YPG spokesperson Nuri Mahmoud, according to Hawar News — media close to group.
He made the remarks on Wednesday in Kobane at a forum titled 'The Syrian North's Future and the Syrian Solution's Ways.'
Mahmoud claimed that Russia suggesting to invoke the Adana Pact would create "war" between NATO members including Turkey and members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
"That Convention did not take the opinion of the spectra of the Syrian people. It was fundamentally illegal and not recognized by the people so the current situation in Syria is very different from the years of the Agreement," he said.
The accord, signed in 1998 between Ankara and Damascus, allowed Turkey to conduct operations on Syrian soil against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Analysts have argued that if the agreement is invoked, it would force Turkey to legitimize Bashar al-Assad's government, which Turkey has been trying to overthrow through its support of proxy fighters.
Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian branch of the PKK. They deny any organizational links. The United States acknowledges they have ties.
Kurdish leaders in Syria increasingly have explored diplomatic solutions following President Donald Trump's announcement in December of his intention to withdraw US forces.
US lawmakers, analysts, and activists have urged Trump to reconsider the withdrawal. They claim it endangers the lives of Americans and locals in Syria and could allow for an extremist insurgency or Afrin-like cleansing operation by Turkey.
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants the US to maintain a presence in Syria. He introduced clauses in the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act that would mandate for Trump to slow the withdrawal.
"It would recognize the danger of a precipitous withdrawal from either conflict, and highlight the need for diplomatic engagement and political solutions to the underlying conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan," read a statement from his office on Tuesday.
Pointing to recent history in the Middle East, he warned likely consequences.
It made no mention of Syria or the safe zone. The amendment was also supported by Senators Marco Rubio, Jim Risch, and Cory Gardner.
Senator John Kennedy also introduced an amendment to the act this week that more directly addressed the protection of "indispensable" Syrian Kurds.
Trump slammed US intelligence community leadership on Wednesday, following Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’ yearly security briefing and testimony to the Senate.
The United States acknowledges that it has around 2,000 forces in Syria. Although the number is likely higher as Washington uses various means to obscure the number including Special Forces deployments, troop rotations, and the use of department of defense and state civilian and military contractors.
France and the United Kingdom also have forces deployed in Syria.