Turkey said Monday that it was “only a matter of time” before Syrian Kurdish fighters – seen by the West as essential in the fight against Islamic State jihadists – will be wiped out.
“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.
Turkey sees the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the main component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – as a terror group linked to its outlawed domestic foe the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Fidan warned against any Western support for Kurdish fighters 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 said, using an Arabic acronym for IS group.
Turkey has long been rankled by the US’ support for the Kurdish-led SDF in northern Syria.
But Washington has long seen the SDF – which spearheaded the fight against IS in 2019 and controls jails and camps in which jihadists are held – as crucial to preventing a resurgence of the group.
New Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose HTS group has long had ties with Turkey, told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.
Fidan’s comments came after he met Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, with whom he discussed the IS threat in Syria in the wake of the toppling of Bashar al-Assad by Islamist-led rebels.
Observers fear space could be left for IS extremists to regather strength after Assad’s overthrow.
The group has managed to survive in both Iraq and Syria despite the destruction of its so-called caliphate that lasted from 2014-19.
“We discussed what we can do together against the threat of Daesh in Syria and the region,” Fidan said.
“Daesh 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 Daesh does not rise again.”
