ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey expects foreign countries will withdraw support for Kurdish fighters in Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, President Tayyip Erdogan said, as Ankara seeks to isolate Kurds who have long fought alongside U.S. troops.
Speaking to reporters on the flight home from a summit in Egypt on Thursday, Erdogan said there was no longer any reason for outsiders to back Kurdish YPG fighters. His comments were released by his office on Friday.
The Kurdish YPG has been the main force in a U.S.-backed alliance in northern Syria, but Turkey considers the group an extension of the PKK, which has long fought the Turkish state and is banned as terrorists by Ankara, Washington and the EU.
In his remarks, Erdogan compared the U.S.-backed YPG to Islamic State, and said neither group had any future in Syria.
“In the upcoming period, we do not believe that any power will continue to collaborate with terrorist organisations. The heads of terrorist organisations such as Islamic State and PKK-YPG will be crushed in the shortest possible time.”
The United States still has 900 troops on the ground in Syria working alongside the YPG-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF played a major role on the ground defeating Islamic State militants in 2014-2017 with U.S. air support, and still guards Islamist fighters in prison camps.
Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the YPG-led SDF in northern Syria, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the fighters.
Hostilities have escalated since Assad was toppled less than two weeks ago, with Turkey and Syrian groups it backs seizing the city of Manbij from the SDF on Dec. 9, prompting the United States to broker a fragile ceasefire.
Erdogan told reporters that Turkey wanted to see a new Syria in which all ethnic and religious groups can live in harmony. To achieve this, “Islamic State, the PKK and its versions which threaten the survival of Syria need to be eradicated”, he said.
“The PKK terrorist organisation and its extensions in particular have reached the end of their lifespan,” Erdogan added.
On Thursday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi told Reuters that Kurdish fighters from outside Syria who had joined the group’s ranks would leave if a truce were agreed with Turkey, long one of Ankara’s major demands.
In his remarks, Abdi acknowledged for the first time that Kurdish fighters from other countries – including PKK members – had been assisting the SDF, but said they would no longer be needed under a truce.
A Turkish Defence Ministry official said there was no talk of a ceasefire between Turkey and the SDF, adding that Ankara would continue taking counter-terrorism measures until “the PKK/YPG lays down its arms and its foreign fighters leave Syria”.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Ece Toksabay and Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Daren Butler and Peter Graff)