Germany on Monday rushed to the PKK/YPG’s defense following Türkiye’s warning against the terrorist group’s presence in neighboring Syria.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday it was time to destroy terrorist groups that posed a threat to Syria’s survival, including Daesh, PKK and the YPG.
“The terrorists in Syria will either dissolve themselves or ultimately be destroyed as there is no place for terrorism in Syria,” Erdoğan said separately Monday.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned on Monday that a military operation by Türkiye against the YPG “must not happen,” claiming that in the end, this could “empower” Daesh terrorists.
“That would be a security threat for Syria but also for Türkiye and us in Europe,” Baerbock told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.
Baerbock insisted that it was the PKK/YPG who pushed back Daesh in northeastern Syria, calling the city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani, a “symbol of courageous fight” of the YPG against Daesh.
She urged Türkiye to “not drive out” the PKK/YPG out of Syria in the aftermath of Assad’s overthrow.
Türkiye views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, which fought the Turkish state in a four-decade terror campaign and is classified as a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union, which includes Germany.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum, the terrorist group occupied much of northeastern Syria early in the civil war with the help of the United States, which calls the group a “crucial” ally in the anti-Daesh campaign. Ankara says the YPG is on par with Daesh and should have no presence in the new Syria.
In recent years, Türkiye has deployed troops and worked with local allies such as the opposition Syrian National Army (SNA) to prevent the YPG advance in the region and keep locals safe from terrorist oppression.
Tensions between the SNA and PKK/YPG have climbed in the past two weeks as the terror group sought to exploit the security vacuum and occupy new territories after the anti-regime forces took control of Damascus and toppled the Assad regime.
Since then, the SNA has pushed back the PKK/YPG from several towns, including key strongholds Tal Rifaat, Manbij and Deir el-Zour, but hostilities persist.
The PKK, classified as an “ethno-nationalist” terrorist organization by the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol, has been banned in Germany since 1993. However, it remains the largest foreign extremist group in the country, and its followers, some 14,500 people, can carry out violent attacks upon instructions from group leaders abroad, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, BfV, warned in its annual report in 2022.
The terrorist group raised an estimated 16.7 million euros ($17.8 million) in Germany in 2021 and collected more than 30 million euros in various “fundraising campaigns” across Europe, according to the report.
Furthermore, it showed that since 2013, at least 295 foreign fighters from Germany have traveled to northern Syria and Iraq, where they received military training from PKK terrorists and took part in armed attacks in the region.