ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey is “cautiously optimistic” about an agreement between the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syria’s new government, a Turkish official said on Tuesday, adding it wanted to first see how it would be implemented.
The SDF, which controls much of Syria’s northeast and which Ankara views as a terrorist organisation, signed an agreement to join Syria’s new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday.
The accord provides for SDF-controlled civilian and military institutions in northeast Syria to be integrated with the state, and for border crossings, an airport, and oil and gas fields in Syria’s east to become part of the Damascus administration.
It came at a critical moment as Damascus grapples with the fallout from mass killings of Alawite minority members in western Syria – violence that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Monday threatened his effort to unite Syria after 14 years of conflict.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the accord. Beyond the agreement that was reached, we are looking at how it will be implemented at this stage,” the official told Reuters.
“The terrorist organisation has made promises before too, so we are looking at implementation rather than an expression of intent here.”
Since rebels, some of whom were backed by Turkey for years, ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year to end his five-decade rule, Ankara has become one of the main foreign allies of the new Islamist government in Damascus.
Ankara, which still controls swathes of territory in Syria’s north after cross-border operations against the YPG militia that spearheads the SDF, has repeatedly demanded that the YPG disarms and disbands, and for any non-Syrian fighters in the militia to leave the country.
The Turkish official, requesting anonymity, said the accord did not change Turkey’s determination in counter-terrorism.
“It is unacceptable for these people (YPG) to enter Syrian institutions without breaking their chain of command. Then there is a chain of command within a chain of command. It is important for them to be integrated, not enter while continuing to be the YPG,” the official said.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Alexandra Hudson)
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