Syrian Kurd leader urges Turkey to join fight against jihadists
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim says his Democratic Union Party will not participate in Syria’s presidential elections, and questions why the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq is not helping Syria’s Kurds.
After prolonged tensions, relations between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds are showing signs of a thaw.
Border crossings to Turkey controlled by the largest Kurdish militia group known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) were long sealed by the Turkish side. But the restrictions have been eased for the delivery of humanitarian relief. Officials from the self-administered Syrian Kurdish region called Rojava traveled to Ankara in March, where they met with Western diplomats and held back-channel talks with the Turkish government. They also meet regularly with UN officials based in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep to coordinate aid efforts. This wouldn’t be possible without Ankara’s blessing. The shift reflects growing acceptance in Ankara that the YPG is a dominant force on the ground and points to future engagement on the political level.
In April, contacts between Ankara and the YPG took a further unexpected turn when a convoy of some 18 Turkish military vehicles, including tanks, crossed into Syria through the YPG-controlled Kobane gate to resupply the Tomb of Suleiman Shah. One of the main reasons that Turkey has shut out the YPG is that it is closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Yet, it is unthinkable that Turkish troops could have passed through Kobane without consulting them first. According to unconfirmed reports, radical Islamist fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) disrupted the Turkish convoy’s progress and forced it to return to Turkey via a longer route through the Jarabulus crossing that is under its control. But the Turkish convoy rotated the troops and delivered its supplies.
ISIS has been vying with the YPG and rival Syrian opposition factions for control of areas running along the Turkish border. It reviles Turkey’s leaders as infidels and has threatened to overrun the Tomb of Suleiman Shah, which is under Turkish jurisdiction. In short, ISIS is an enemy of Turkey and the YPG alike, which ought to mean that Turkey and the YPG ought to be joining forces against it.
