Abdullah Keddo, a member of the political board of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, says people aligned with the PKK terrorist organization and non-Syrian members of such groups should leave the country after the fall of the Baathist regime.
Keddo, also a representative of the Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS), the main political representative of Kurds in the country, said the presence of the PKK harms both stability and attempts at dialogue between Syrian Kurdish groups in Syria.
“We refuse to accept the presence of the PKK and its affiliates in Syria, all of which must be removed from the region,” Keddo told Anadolu Agency (AA).
“As Syrians, we have rejected all forces that cross the limit and we are against the political presence of all non-Syrians in Syria,” he said, stressing the need to protect all factions and minorities in the region.
According to Keddo, when the anti-regime forces launched a lightning offensive last month that toppled Bashar Assad in less than two weeks, the ENKS had a “long and challenging dialogue” with the PKK’s Syrian wing YPG, which he said was coordinated by Mesut Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
Keddo said the dialogue failed “because the YPG and its allies’ extensions insisted on controlling the region alone,” whereas the ENKS sought the regional administration to include all factions like Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians and Turkmen.
“Our chief condition was that the YPG would sever ties with the PKK, but we have failed on that front so far,” Keddo noted.
The PKK, which has fought the Turkish state in a four-decade terror campaign and is classified as a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.
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 its primary 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 a Reuters interview last Thursday, YPG leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin, code-named “Mazloum Kobani,” acknowledged the presence of PKK members in Syria for the first time, claiming they had helped Daesh and would return home if a total cease-fire was agreed with Türkiye.
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.
Since anti-regime forces took control of Damascus and toppled the Assad regime, the SNA has pushed back the PKK/YPG from several towns, including key strongholds Tal Rifaat and Manbij.
But clashes continue between the SNA and the YPG in Manbij, mostly concentrated around Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River.
Two people were killed and two others injured on Tuesday in a car bomb attack in central Manbij carried out by the YPG.
SNA sources have confirmed that the attack was carried out by elements of the PKK/YPG, which has tried to expand its territory in the wake of the Dec. 8 fall of the Assad regime.
Since Dec. 20, PKK/YPG militants have ramped up their assaults near the Tishrin Dam on the district’s southeastern outskirts. The militants, armed with heavy weaponry such as Grad rockets, have also been attempting surprise attacks by emerging from underground tunnels beneath Manbij.
The new administration in Damascus has called on the group to lay down its arms, while Türkiye echoed the same call and urged their dissolution.
Keddo welcomed the YPG’s claims of being open to dialogue with the new Damascus administration, noting that complete stability in Syria is only possible “with democratic state authority reaching every single village.”
The YPG must “amend for its mistakes and act according to the people’s expectations for a new and diverse Syria,” Keddo noted.