Recent deadly clashes in Syria’s Aleppo were an attempt by Kurdish fighters to sabotage Turkey’s efforts to end a decades-long conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Ankara’s ruling party said Monday.
“The YPG/SDF terrorist organization’s attacks and the operation in Aleppo… is an attempt to sabotage the goal of a terror-free Turkey,” said Ömer Çelik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, referring to the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Over the past year, Turkey has been engaged in efforts to draw a line under its four-decade conflict with the PKK, which it refers to as the “terror-free Turkey” process.
Last year, the PKK announced an end to its armed struggle and began destroying its weapons, but Turkey has insisted that the move include armed Kurdish groups in Syria, which Ankara sees as PKK offshoots.
Turkey has long been hostile to the SDF that controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as a major threat along its southern border and repeatedly calling for its integration into the Syrian military and security apparatus.
That was supposed to have happened by the end of 2025 under a deal reached in March, but implementation has stalled over sharp differences between the sides, notably Kurdish demands for decentralized rule.
The tensions descended into violence last week, which only ended on Sunday as Syrian government forces took full control of Aleppo.
The standoff between Damascus and the SDF has had a chilling effect on Turkey’s domestic peace moves, which have largely stalled.
© Agence France-Presse