Turkey says it will mount offensive against Kurdish YPG if group does not meet its demands

Turkey will carry out a cross-border offensive into northeastern Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia if the group does not meet Ankara’s demands, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday, while adding that Syria’s new rulers must address the issue.

Turkey considers the YPG, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist group linked to Kurdish militants waging a decades-old insurgency against the Turkish state. It has carried out several incursions against the group in the past.

While repeatedly asking its NATO ally Washington to halt its support for the group, Ankara has carried out several incursions against the YPG in the past and controls swathes of territory in northern Syria.

Since the ousting of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month by opposition forces, some of whom Turkey has supported, Ankara has demanded that the YPG disband, its non-Syrian militants and foreign terrorist fighters leave Syria or are repatriated to their source countries, and its leaders turn themselves in.

Speaking to broadcaster CNN Turk, Fidan said Turkey believed the new Syrian administration must address the issue of the YPG’s presence, but added this may take time as a transition period is underway in Damascus.

Asked what Turkey would do if Damascus was unable to address the issue, Fidan said “whatever is necessary.” When asked what that entailed, he said “a military operation”, while adding that the new Syrian leadership had the power to battle the YPG on its own as well.

The SDF played a key role in defeating ISIS militants in 2014-2017. The group still guards ISIS fighters in prison camps there, but has been on the back foot since al-Assad’s fall.

Turkey has said that the new Syrian leadership has conveyed its proposal to take over the management of those camp prisons.

Fidan, who was the first foreign minister to visit Damascus since al-Assad’s fall last month, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had ordered that Turkish soldiers take over the management of the camp prisons if the new Syrian leadership is unable to do so.