Türkiye threatens military operation against Kurds in Syria if conditions not met
Last Updated on January 11, 2025 5:52 am
Turkey has threatened to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday that action would be taken against the Kurds if they did not accept Ankara’s conditions to resolve the bloodshed following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
Deutsche Welle reported this in a report on Wednesday (January 8).
Hakan Fidan told CNN Turk television that “if the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) does not agree to Turkey’s demands, we will do whatever is necessary.”
Asked what that might entail, he said, “a military operation.”
Turkey considers the YPG to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been active in its country for 40 years. Both Turkey and the United States consider the armed political group a terrorist group. The PKK has been involved in a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
Turkey’s ‘clear’ ultimatum
Since the fall of Assad to Islamist-led rebels last month, Ankara has been raising the possibility of Turkish intervention in Syria against Kurdish forces accused of links to the outlawed PKK.
Fidan said, “International fighters from Turkey, Iran and Iraq must leave Syria immediately. We do not see any preparations or any intention in this direction right now and we are waiting. It is clear that we have given them (the YPG) an ultimatum through the Americans.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously warned that Kurdish fighters in Syria must either surrender their weapons or be buried alive.
Over the past nine years, Turkey has carried out several ground operations in Syria to keep Kurdish forces away from its borders.
Turkey considers the YPG militia to be a major part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militia group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since 1984. Despite being NATO members, Washington and Ankara have backed opposing rebel groups in Syria’s 13-year civil war.