FILE PHOTO: Turkish soldiers seen at the border town of Akcakale © Reuters / Murad Sezer
Ankara is expecting Damascus to understand its position with regard to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on March 12.
“We are expecting Damascus to understand our position towards the YPG,” the minister said during an interview with the Anadolu Agency. “We support the continuation of talks between Ankara and Damascus after the technical meetings that will take place next week.”
The technical meetings, set to be held in Moscow, will be attended by the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran.
“We are not occupiers of the Syrian territory, and our presence there aims to combat terrorism, and protect our borders and territorial integrity,” Akar added.
Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The faction is the core of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which control vast parts of northern and eastern Syria with direct support from the United States.
Damascus opposes Kurdish forces and has clashed with them on several occasions in the past. Nevertheless, it does not consider them to be terrorist groups as the case with Ankara.
President Bashar al-Assad discussed the Turkish-Syrian normalization process with Iranian foreign minister Hussein Amir Abdollahia during a meeting in Damascus earlier this week. At the time, the president said that the interests of the Syrian people should be the basis for any new steps towards Ankara.
The normalization process gained momentum last December, when the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of the two countries met in Moscow.
Despite all recent progress, Damascus will not likely restore ties with Ankara without a clear plan for a Turkish military withdrawal from Syrian territory. Ankara may not be willing to make such a concession right now.
