In remarks published on Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told fellow members of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) at a meeting on Monday that the Syrian army scored a major victory in Aleppo against the YPG terrorist group.
The president was speaking about the terror-free Türkiye initiative launched in 2024 for the disarmament of the PKK, with whom the U.S.-backed terrorist group in Syria is affiliated. Erdoğan called for caution, “not to allow the initiative and brotherhood between Turks, Kurds and Arabs to be disrupted.”
The YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK that killed thousands in Türkiye since the 1980s, shelled residential neighborhoods in Aleppo in a bid to retain its control of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh of the Syrian province. Clashes between the group and the Syrian army lingered for a week since last Monday and led to the killing of 24 people, while tens of thousands of people were displaced. The YPG was forced to withdraw over the weekend after a major offensive by the Syrian army. The attacks were a culmination of tensions between the YPG and Damascus, which pushed the group to honor a March 2025 deal to integrate into the Syrian army. The YPG has been persistent in its demands for "federalism," aspiring to continue its self-styled autonomy in northeastern Syria.
The AK Party has held a central administrative committee meeting in Ankara on Monday to discuss developments in its southern neighbor and the terror-free initiative, which was launched by government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli. The PKK largely complied with the initiative and announced it would dissolve itself last spring. However, the YPG did not disarm itself, dismissing a call by the PKK's jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan. Ankara backed Damascus' deal with the YPG for integration but has repeatedly warned that failure to adhere to the deal may lead to military action, as Türkiye did in the past.
Erdoğan told the AK Party meeting that all measures were in place for the security of Türkiye in the face of developments in Syria. Sources said on Tuesday that Erdoğan highlighted that the YPG's expulsion from Aleppo was a major gain for permanent peace and stability in Syria. He praised the Syrian government's approach to the issue by reaching out to all different segments of the Syrian society and against the maximalist and irrational demands of the YPG, and underlined that the prevalence of this approach would be for the benefit of the people of Syria. He said Türkiye should be careful in its approach to developments in Syria in a way not to harm the brotherhood between Turks, Arabs and Kurds and not to fall for "provocations."
The president also termed the implementation of the March 2025 deal as a historic opportunity and expressed Türkiye's support for Syria.
