Mar 26, 2019

Syrian Kurdish officials say they remain opposed to any US plans for a safe zone that would foresee the further injection of Turkish forces and their rebel opposition Free Syrian Army allies in territories currently under their control along the Turkish border, saying any such arrangement would escalate tensions and add to instability. “A safe zone that allows for Turkish troops to come into our areas is completely unacceptable. The US goal should be to prevent Turkish aggression against us as we have no aggressive intentions toward Turkey,” a senior official in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told Al-Monitor in a telephone interview.

The official was responding to the latest comments by Jim Jeffrey, the United States’ Syria envoy, about a proposed safe zone.

In a State Department press briefing yesterday, Jeffrey said, “In terms of the Kurds, what we’re working with is with Turkey to have a safe zone of some length along the Turkish border where there would be no YPG forces, because Turkey feels very nervous about the YPG and their ties to the PKK.” YPG is the acronym for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the militia that played an instrumental role at the helm of the SDF in securing the defeat of the Islamic State. PKK stands for the Kurdistan Workers Party, the Kurdish rebel grouping that has been fighting the Turkish military since 1984 and oversaw the establishment of the YPG.

Turkey is livid over the continued partnership between the US-led coalition and the YPG and has been threatening to attack the group in the swath of territory extending from the east bank of the Euphrates River all the way to the Iraqi border, saying the group is a danger to its national security. Last year, Turkish forces proved they meant business when they drove the YPG out of the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin. Jeffrey noted, “We understand those concerns. We’ve been involved for many years dealing with the threats to Turkey out of the Qandil Mountains" in Iraqi Kurdistan, where the PKK command is based. He went on, “We don’t want to see another Qandil Mountains in Syria.”

The diplomat underlined, however, that the purpose of a safe zone would be to protect both sides. “We also do not want anyone mishandling our SDF partners, some of whom are Kurds. And so therefore, we’re working for a solution that will meet everybody’s needs.”