Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the PKK terrorist group’s members in the YPG must leave Syria as the country tries to form a new, unified administration, which he said needs to be inclusive and tolerant.
“Elimination of YPG is Türkiye’s strategic goal,” Fidan told a live broadcast on NTV channel Friday. He highlighted that the PKK’s Syrian offshoots have no place in the country’s future while noting that the safety of the Kurdish population must be ensured.
“Syria now has a national ruling government,” Fidan said, adding that the new administration would not recognize the YPG or others.
“They will take their land and sovereignty back,” he added.
YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, a terrorist group that has waged a bloody terror campaign in Türkiye since 1984 and has killed at least 40,000 people.
Washington backs the PKK/YPG under the guise of a fight against the Daesh terrorist group.
The outgoing Biden administration is particularly concerned that a power vacuum in Syria could exacerbate already heightened tensions in the region, which is already wracked by multiple conflicts, and create conditions for the Daesh terror group to regain territory and influence.
Ankara, meanwhile, is concerned the PKK/YPG could exploit the security vacuum to push its agenda for a terror corridor along Turkish borders.
The NATO allies are at loggerheads over Washington’s support for the PKK/YPG.
The top Turkish diplomat said Türkiye always foresaw risks in Syria since the beginning of the uprising over a decade ago, but the Assad regime disregarded political processes that Ankara proposed to launch.
Regarding the ouster of Bashar Assad, Fidan said Ankara had urged Russia and Iran not to intervene militarily to support regime forces, which have been weakened in the past two to three years.
“The most vital thing to do was to talk to the Russians and Iranians to ensure that they didn’t enter the equation militarily,” Fidan said, adding that they had meetings with the Russians and Iranians and they understood.
“If the regime had their support, things would’ve turned rather bloody,” he said.
Anti-regime elements had governing experience
Noting that the anti-regime forces served a population of 4 million people in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, Fidan said they have experience and are aware of the fact that their primary obligation is to fulfill the needs of the people. He added that they also needed to be inclusive and tolerant, but the facilitation of unity was a priority for the new administration.
“We want a Syria without terrorism, a Syria where minorities are not discriminated. We want a country that does not own chemical weapons and does not threaten neighboring countries,” Fidan said, adding that Ankara is currently conveying these messages to Damascus.
Türkiye to reopen embassy
In response to a question about when Türkiye’s embassy would open in Damascus, Fidan said diplomatic staff were already on their way.
“Our embassy will start operating as of tomorrow [Saturday],” Fidan said.
Türkiye appointed a charge d’affairs to Syria after 12 years.
The embassy was closed in March 2012 following clashes between Assad regime forces and pro-democracy protestors.
The appointment of Burhan Köroğlu came shortly after Türkiye’s top intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalın visited the Syrian capital on Thursday.
The capture also overthrew the Baath Party, the Arab socialist group that had come to power in Syria in a 1963 coup.
The anti-regime forces also dealt a major blow to the influence of Russia and Iran in Syria in the heart of the region, allies who propped up Assad during critical periods in the conflict.