Pro-Kurdish party calls Ankara’s Syria policy ‘hypocrisy’ for backing Damascus against Kurds

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) has accused Ankara of “political hypocrisy” on Syria, saying Turkey claims to pursue peace at home while supporting Damascus in moves that target Kurdish gains across the border.

In a written statement issued by its Central Executive Committee on January 18, the party said northeastern Syria is being pushed toward a new cycle of violence and argued that military pressure is replacing dialogue at a moment when negotiations should be strengthened.

“While a peace process is being carried out in Turkey, the partisan policies pursued in Northeast Syria during the same period are pure political hypocrisy,” the DEM Party said.

The party’s criticism centers on Turkey’s support for Syria’s interim authorities as they expand control in northern and eastern Syria at the expense of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has long served as the backbone of Kurdish self-rule in the region.

The SDF is the main US-backed force that fought the Islamic State group in Syria and has controlled large parts of the country’s northeast for more than a decade. Turkey views it as linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.

After days of clashes, Syria’s government and the Kurdish-led SDF on Sunday agreed to an immediate ceasefire and the full integration of the SDF into Syria’s national institutions, bringing large parts of the former autonomous northeast under Damascus’s control.

Turkey welcomed Syria’s deal to absorb the Kurdish-led SDF into state structures, saying it stopped what it calls an attempt to sabotage Ankara’s renewed peace efforts with the PKK.

The DEM Party said Ankara cannot claim to seek reconciliation with Kurds inside Turkey while backing policies in Syria that weaken Kurdish political and military power.

“You cannot treat those you call ‘citizens’ on this side of the border as ‘enemies’ on the other side,” the party said, warning that the contradiction would deepen mistrust and create lasting damage in Kurdish-Turkish relations.

The statement accused Syria’s interim authorities of violating the March 10, 2025, agreement reached with Kurdish-led forces and said Damascus was failing to honor its commitments.

The DEM Party described renewed fighting around areas including the Tishreen Dam, Tabqa, Raqqa and the Deir ez-Zor countryside as “sabotage,” arguing that attacks escalated at a moment when the SDF had signaled readiness to redeploy forces and reduce tensions.

It also alleged that smear campaigns and what it called perception operations were being used to narrow the ground for dialogue and restart confrontation.

The party said Syria’s crisis is political and cannot be resolved through decrees or limited cultural measures alone. It argued that any lasting settlement requires a constitutional framework that guarantees political rights and equal status for all groups.

It called for a democratic constitution and said democratization must include all of Syria, warning that social peace cannot be achieved without protections for groups including Alawites, Druze and Christians and without guaranteed freedom of belief.

The DEM Party also criticized efforts to present Kurdish cultural rights granted by a Syrian government decree on Friday as sufficient, saying lasting peace requires a political settlement, not only civil or cultural reforms.

The statement referenced jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, saying he views the clashes in Syria as an attempt to undermine peace efforts in Turkey.

It said Öcalan believes Syria’s problems should be addressed through dialogue and negotiation and urged all sides to act with restraint and common sense.

The DEM Party called on the Turkish government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, to abandon policies that undermine Kurdish-Turkish relations and to bring Syria policy in line with efforts to pursue peace inside Turkey.

The party urged an end to attacks in northern Syria and a return to negotiations and constitutional solutions.

It said regional states should contribute to peace between Kurds and Arabs and between different communities in Syria, warning that a return to wider conflict would threaten regional stability.