Erdogan called to stop foreign support to Kurdish fighters in Syria News

Comparing the Kurdish YPG fighters with ISIS, the Turkish president says that no group has a future in Syria.

While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned against the escalation of fighting with German Kurdish forces, he expects foreign countries to withdraw their support for Kurdish fighters in Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to reporters while flying home from a summit in Egypt, Erdogan said there was no longer any reason for outsiders to support Kurdish fighters with the People’s Protection Units (YPG). His comments were released by his office on Friday.

The YPG is the main force of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance in northeastern Syria. Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has long fought against the Turkish state and is designated a “terrorist” group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.

In his speech, Erdogan compared the YPG fighters to the armed group known as Daesh and said that no group has a future in Syria.

“We do not believe that any power will continue to cooperate with terrorist organizations in the coming period. Leaders of terrorist organizations such as Daesh, PKK-YPG will be crushed as soon as possible.”

The US still has 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria SDF. The alliance played a major role in defeating ISIS forces on the ground in 2014-2017, with US air support and still with its bodyguards. ISIS fighters in prison camps.

Ankara, along with its Syrian allies, has carried out several cross-border attacks against the SDF in northern Syria, while at the same time it has repeatedly demanded that NATO ally Washington end its support for the fighters.

Hostilities have increased since President Assad was ousted less than two weeks ago, with Turkish and Syrian groups supporting the capture of Manbij from the SDF on December 9.

Erdogan told journalists that Turkey wants to see a new Syria where all ethnic and religious groups can live in harmony. To achieve this, ISIS said, “It is necessary to root out the PKK and its variants, which threaten the survival of Syria.”

Security of Kurds is “important”

Later on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told her Turkish counterpart that the security of the Kurdish people is important for Syria.

After the meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, he warned the journalists about the danger of any “escalation” with the Kurdish forces in Syria.

Baerbock also raised the alarm about renewed violence in northern Syria.

“Thousands of Kurds from Manbij and other places are fleeing in Syria or fearing new violence,” the German minister said. “I stated very, very clearly today that the escalation with the Kurds in Syria should not threaten our common security interests.”

Fidan Baerboka said that it is important for Kurdish groups, including the PKK and YPG, to lay down their weapons and disband, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said.

Meanwhile, a senior US diplomat said on Friday that Washington was calling for a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the Syrian city known as Kobane in Kurdish and Ain al-Arab in Arabic.

“We are working energetically in discussions with the Turkish authorities, as well as with the SDG. Barbara Leaf, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, told reporters after her first visit to Damascus since Assad’s ouster that the best way forward was to achieve a ceasefire around Kobani.