Turkey celebrates as Syrian government makes gains against Kurdish-led force
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is celebrating the latest developments in Syria, where the new government has effectively defeated a major Kurdish-led force with an abrupt offensive.
Ankara has long viewed armed groups led by Kurds — an ethnic minority with large populations in eastern Turkey, Iraq and northern Syria — as a threat as Turkey as fought to quell the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, whose decades‑long insurgency claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Coming just a few months after the Kurdish militant group in Turkey agreed to lay down its arms, the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces is a major step toward Ankara’s regional goals.
Kurdish group was swept aside by Syria’s new government
In just two weeks, Syria’s Kurdish‑led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF — once the main partner of the United States against the militant Islamic State group in Syria — lost most of its territory in northern Syria to an offensive launched by Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
The SDF was then forced to accept a deal under which it would dissolve and merge tens of thousands of its fighters with Syrian government’s military as individuals rather than in a bloc, after the failure of months-long negotiations on the integration of its troops into the new Syrian army.
The SDF was established a decade ago with U.S. support as a coalition to fight IS. Its backbone was made up of a Syrian Kurdish armed group affiliated with the PKK.
Al-Sharaa took power after the ouster of the President Bashar Assad’s government in December 2024, and has been consolidating authority while dealing with challenges from the remnants of pro-Assad groups as well as some former opposition groups that want to maintain autonomy from Damascus.
In particular, minority religious and ethnic groups have viewed the new, Sunni Arab-led government with suspicion. Turkey has been a key backer of al‑Sharaa, providing political and military support to strengthen his government.
Washington declined to intervene on behalf of SDF, shifting its support to al-Sharaa’s nascent government and focusing on brokering a ceasefire.
Turkey played a behind-the-scenes role in the offensive
SDF’s loss in Syria of “influence and territorial hold is certainly a very favorable outcome for Turkey,” said Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based EDAM research center. “The extension of the capabilities of the new Syrian government is also another favorable outcome.”
Ulgen cautioned, however, that the Syrian government’s recent gains could prove temporary if al-Sharaa fails to stabilize the northeast of the country.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan extended congratulations to the Syrian government in remarks to his ruling party’s legislators on Wednesday.
“From the very beginning, Turkey has strongly defended the existence of a single Syrian state,” he said. “We have repeatedly declared that we will not consent to any separatist structure along our southern borders that poses a threat to our country’s security.”
Turkey not only benefited from the developments but played a supportive role, advising the Syrian government during operations that led to the withdrawal of SDF forces from the city of Aleppo, Turkish security officials said.
Turkey’s intelligence agency remained in contact with the Syrian administration to prevent harm to civilians and the safe evacuation of SDF members and their families from lost territory, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Turkey also kept in touch with the United States, the international coalition against the Islamic State group, and other regional countries during the offensive, they said.
Obeida Ghadban, a strategic researcher at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Turkey did not play a direct role in negotiations with the SDF but that the Syrian government kept Ankara informed, both directly and through Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria.
Kurdish group’s decline relieves some Turkey-US tensions
Also key to the Syrian government’s success was the willingness of the U.S. to see a former ally — the SDF — dismantled. Experts say the SDF counted on Washington’s support when it rejected an earlier deal proposed by al-Sharaa.
Erdogan’s warm personal ties with Donald Trump likely helped win the U.S. president over, Ulgen said. But he added that the shift in U.S. policy was based on the White House’s assessment that its “interlocutor in Syria should be the new government and not a non-state entity,” referring to the SDF.
Israel refrains from intervening
The development also came despite tensions between Turkey and Israel over Syria.
Some SDF representatives openly called for Israeli intervention during the recent clashes, citing Israel’s past support for the Druze community during violence in Syria’s southern Sweida province. But Israel also chose to stand aside.
Ulgen said a key turning point was a recent meeting between Syrian and Israeli officials in Paris, during which Syria effectively recognized Israel’s zone of influence along its southern border.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, an expert on Turkey at the German Marshall Fund, also said Syria and Israel reached a “tacit agreement” on the SDF during the meeting in Paris but added that U.S. support for the Syrian government played a key role.
Boost to Turkey’s peace effort with the PKK
Turkish officials now hope that the integration of the SDF into Syrian government structures will help advance Ankara’s latest peace initiative aimed at ending Turkey’s own conflict with the PKK.
In May, the PKK announced that it would disarm and disband as part of reconciliation effort, following a call by its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Last summer, the PKK staged a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, where it has safe havens, and later announced that it was withdrawing its remaining fighters from Turkey to Iraq.
The SDF, however, rejected pressure to follow suit, insisting that Ocalan’s call applied only to the PKK.
“Now that handicap has been eliminated” Ulgen said. He, however, cautioned that Ankara must still address potential frustrations among its own Kurdish population, should tensions arise in Syria.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, warned that any violence against Kurds in Syria would undermine peace efforts in Turkey.
“At a time when we are talking about internal peace and calm, can there really be peace if Kurds are being massacred in Syria and the feelings of Kurds in Turkey are ignored?” said the party’s co-chair, Tulay Hatimogullari.
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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Omar Albam in Raqqa, Syria, contributed to this report.