ALEPPO, Syria — News of the recent merging of the Syrian opposition's National Liberation Front (NLF) into the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) has raised questions about the meaning and outcome of the merger in the short and long run. This is especially pertinent now that Turkey has begun its battle against Kurdish fighters east of the Euphrates River, and as wary eyes keep watch on hostilities in supposedly peaceful Idlib province in the west.

Syrian interim government leader Abdul Rahman Mustafa announced Oct. 4 that the NLF was joining the SNA to form a single army under the umbrella of his government’s Ministry of Defense. Speaking to the press in Sanliurfa, Turkey, Mustafa said the army seeks to free Syria from corruption, sectarianism and dictatorship, and to defend Idlib, Hama and the countryside of Latakia. He added that the unified SNA will strive to "return Syrian land to Syrians."

Moderate opposition forces formed the interim government in 2013 as a rival to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The NLF-SNA merging effort goes back to August 2018. But Turkey put the plan on a fast track this month to beef up its numbers for the battle it launched Oct. 9 against Kurdish fighters, including the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), along a 480-kilometer (300-mile) segment of the Syrian-Turkish border. The YPG had been a US ally that fought against the Islamic State. However, Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group, as it does the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Ankara began its incursion against those groups soon after the United States withdrew special forces personnel who had been patrolling in Syria between Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ain.