Turkiye has hit back at claims by the United States that it agreed to a ceasefire with Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, and has vowed to continue working to clear them from the territory – a military operation that was launched after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A senior Turkish defence official on Thursday rubbished claims made by US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller that a Washington-brokered ceasefire between Turkish-backed rebels and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the Syrian city of Manbij had been extended until the end of this week.
The SDF is supported by Washington in its fight against ISIL, but Ankara views it as a “terrorist organisation”, alleging links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a four-decade armed rebellion on Turkish soil.
On Thursday, the Turkish official described Miller’s statement as “a slip of the tongue”, saying it was “out of the question” for Turkiye to talk to the SDF, a group spearheaded by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is seen an extension of the PKK.
“Until the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation disarms and its foreign fighters leave Syria, our preparations and measures will continue within the scope of the fight against terrorism,” said the official.
Turkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as “terrorist” groups. The US and Turkiye’s Western allies also list the PKK as “terrorist”, but not the YPG and the SDF.
Renewed fighting between Turkish-backed factions and Syrian Kurdish fighters comes more than a week after fighters led by opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled Syria’s longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad.
Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu said that Turkiye believed it was up to the new Syrian administration to remove “foreign fighters” – an allusion to PKK members of the YPG – from its territory.
“Turkiye considers all those PKK ranks within the YPG as foreign fighters and the Turkish foreign minister said these foreign fighters … within the opposition factions should be out of Syria, especially as there is a new Syrian administration and a national army is expected to be established,” she said.
If the new administration was unable to remove foreign fighters from its territory, Turkiye could potentially intervene, she added.
The Turkish official’s comments came as concerns grew over a possible Turkish assault on the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, some 50km (30 miles) northeast of Manbij.
US President-elect Donald Trump described the toppling of al-Assad as an “unfriendly takeover” by Turkiye, which had aligned itself with several of the opposition groups that led the lightning offensive on Damascus.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan rejected Trump’s comments, saying it would be “a grave mistake” to describe the current events in Syria as a takeover by Turkiye.
