FM Hakan Fidan says only \u2018a matter of time before YPG is eliminated\u2019 in Syria, urges West to cease supporting group
\n Syria
\nTurkiye\u2019s foreign minister has said that it is \u201conly a matter of time\u201d before Kurdish-led armed groups in Syria will be wiped out, and that Ankara would not agree to any situation allowing the armed group YPG to maintain a presence there after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
\nTurkiye sees the People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG) \u2013 the main component of the United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) \u2013 as a \u201cterrorist\u201d group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK).
\n\u201cConditions in Syria have changed. We believe it\u2019s only a matter of time before PKK\/YPG is eliminated,\u201d Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference in the capital Ankara on Monday.
\nFidan warned against any Western support for Kurdish-led groups in Syria.
\n\u201cIf you [the West] have different aims in the region, if you want to serve another policy by using Daesh as an excuse to embolden the PKK, then there is no way for that, either,\u201d he said, using an Arabic name for the ISIL (also known as ISIS) group.
\nTurkiye has long been rankled by US support for the Kurdish-led SDF in northern Syria.
\nBut Washington has long seen the SDF, which spearheaded the fight against ISIL in 2019 and controls jails and camps in which the group\u2019s fighters are held, as crucial to preventing a resurgence of the group.
\nNew Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group has long had ties with Turkiye, told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.
\nFidan\u2019s comments came after he met Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, with whom he discussed the ISIL threat in Syria in the wake of the toppling of al-Assad by HTS-led rebels.
\nObservers fear space could be left for ISIL fighters to regather strength after the overthrow of al-Assad.
\nThe group has managed to survive in both Iraq and Syria despite the destruction of its so-called caliphate that lasted from 2014 to 2019.
\n\u201cWe discussed what we can do together against the threat of Daesh in Syria and the region,\u201d Fidan said.
\n\u201c[ISIL] is a poison for Muslim societies. Of course, using our religion to brutally kill people \u2026 [and] create chaos is not something we will remain silent about,\u201d he added. \u201cIt is very important that [ISIL] does not rise again.\u201d
\nFidan\u2019s comments came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Syria\u2019s new rulers were determined to root out the YPG.
\n\u201cWith the revolution in Syria \u2026 the hopes of the separatist terrorist organisation hit a wall,\u201d Erdogan said in comments addressed to his party on Sunday.
\n\u201cThe new administration in Syria is showing an extremely determined stance in preserving the country\u2019s territorial integrity and unitary structure,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe end of the terrorist organisation is near. There is no option left other than to surrender their weapons, abandon terrorism, and dissolve the organisation. They will face Turkiye\u2019s iron fist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FM Hakan Fidan says only \u2018a matter of time before YPG is eliminated\u2019 in Syria, urges West to cease supporting group Syria Turkiye\u2019s foreign minister has said that it is \u201conly a matter of time\u201d before Kurdish-led armed groups in Syria will be wiped out, and that Ankara would not agree to any situation allowing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13552],"class_list":{"0":"post-454118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-fm-hakan-fidan"},"yoast_head":"\n