Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has expressed the need for a joint strategy with both the Iraqi and Syrian governments against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other groups Ankara sees as affiliated.
The purpose of recent Moscow-brokered reconciliation talks between Ankara and Damascus is not convincing any country on any specific issue, Çavuşoğlu said during an interview with state-run TRT on Friday.
Turkey has engaged in these talks to tackle three issues, the minister said. The first issue is to revive the political process for a peaceful solution in Syria which has been blocked, he said.
The second issue is terrorism, which also poses a threat for Syria, Çavuşoğlu said, referring to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, which Ankara sees as an extension of the PKK.
“In the end, it is necessary for us to struggle together against the YPG/PKK which tries to divide Syria and which poses a threat to us,” Turkey’s top diplomat said.
Çavuşoğlu added that such a struggle also requires the support of Russia and Iran, noting that both countries are aware of the terror threat the Kurdish armed group creates for Damascus, as well as Washington’s support to the YPG, which forms the backbone of the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State in Syria.
The third issue of reconciliation talks is the safe return of Syrian refugees in Turkey, the minister said, adding that the Turkish government has refrained from endorsing a populist rhetoric against Syrians ahead of 14 May elections in Turkey.
The minister cited the 1998 Adana Agreement between Turkey and Syria, signed at a time when the two neighbouring countries were at the brink of war. As a part of the agreement, which helped to restore bilateral ties, Damascus recognised the PKK as a terrorist group and pledged not to provide any support that would maintain its existence on Syrian soil.
Saying that such a guarantee over terrorism does not exist now, Çavuşoğlu commented on a possible withdrawal of Turkish forces in northern Syria.
“The regime has been saying from the beginning that Turkey should withdraw,” Çavuşoğlu said, referring to Bashar Assad’s government in Damascus.
“Let’s say we withdraw at this very moment. What will happen? Terrorist organisations will come to our border,” the minister said.
Adding that the Damascus government at the moment does not have the capability to control the YPG/PKK in northeast Syria, the minister said that such a move will spark a new wave of refugee flow to Turkey, as the Kurdish armed groups will seize control of territories at the border of the two neighbouring countries.
The minister accused Kurdish groups of persecuting other Kurds, Christian minorities, Arabs and Turkmens and of killing anyone who does not obey them.
“Moreover, their coming to territories near our borders will mean attacks to Turkey from those places,” Çavuşoğlu said, adding that this will also increase the risk of a possible PKK infiltration into Turkey.
“In the end, without an agreement on the political process, without a roadmap that will unify the country, there will be a blood bath the moment we withdraw,” he said about Syria.
The minister said that Ankara respected the territorial unity of Syria, as well as Iraq.
“But there are continuous PKK attacks against Turkey coming from Iraq,” Çavuşoğlu said. “It remains a threat, as long as it stays there,” he continued, referring to the Kurdish group which is based in northern Iraq.
“If only Iraq added the PKK to the terror list and we struggled against it together,” the foreign minister said, adding that Ankara had asked such a move from Baghdad several times.
