YPG leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin was quick to distinguish his group of terrorists as a separate entity when the terror-free Türkiye initiative gained momentum.
The leader of the YPG, the U.S.-backed Syrian wing of the PKK, initially welcomed a call by the latter’s jailed leader to lay down arms, but the group will apparently not follow in the steps of its parent terrorist group.
The group appears to be focused on increasing incursions of Israel into Syria and the future of the U.S. presence in Syria. Pundits say they are waiting for new signals from the two countries on their fate in post-Assad Syria and amid PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s historic call to the terrorist group to end the years of violence targeting Türkiye.
Şahin told a National Press Club event in the U.S. via a video call last week that Öcalan’s call was not intended for them. He underlined that their main expectation at the moment was a process he claimed to be led by the U.S. to negotiate the future of the YPG with Türkiye and the new administration in Damascus.
The YPG’s supporters have also called on Israel to aid them for their survival after the fall of the Assad regime last year in Syria, as Syrian opposition forces advanced on the group’s strongholds and Türkiye signaled a cross-border offensive. In his remarks to the U.S. event, Şahin claimed Israel’s incursion into Syria was out of its own security concerns.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had courted the YPG in a November speech where he termed “Kurds” as Israel’s natural ally in Syria, referring to the ethnic identity of the YPG. Saar had called for an outreach to the group and strengthening the ties, something he repeated on Tuesday as he urged Syrian authorities to respect the rights of Kurds. Saar had openly aired his grievance about operations against the YPG, especially in Manbij, which was recaptured from the terrorist group by the Syrian National Army (SNA) last December. He had claimed that the YPG contributed to stability in Syria. His remarks were hailed by YPG’s top officials, including Salih Muslim, who expressed his hope for Saar’s words to translate into action. In a Dec. 10, 2024, piece, the Jerusalem Post of Israel reported that the YPG openly asked for assistance from Israel after Assad’s fall.
A week later, Israeli opposition politician Yair Golan had called on the Netanyahu administration to turn to open and secret channels to back Kurds, claiming a strong Kurdish region in Syria would help the security of Israel. Ilham Ahmed, a “foreign affairs” official of YPG, told the Jerusalem Post on Feb. 3 that Israel should support the group so that Syria would not lapse into another “civil war.”
Ahmed claimed that a democratic solution in the Middle East would not be possible unless "Israel and the Jewish people take part." She proposed that Israel should be involved in the security of the border regions in Syria.
Israel's policy of establishing special relations with nations and minorities other than Arabs in the Middle East also extended to the Druze minority in Syria. After the regime’s fall, even though there were no requests from them, Israel began considering the protection of the Druze as a tool for intervention in Syria. Expanding its occupied territory in the Golan Heights in southern Syria, Israel insisted on disarming the area and transforming it into a buffer zone between Syria’s new administration and its occupation.
Last week, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also drew attention to the fact that the YPG was part of the PKK. "In the West, everyone thinks Şahin is Syrian and represents the region. This is a lie. He has to answer to two people. The PKK’s “military” commander in Syria, Fehman Hüseyin, and the civil branch’s Syria Commissioner Sabri Ok. He reports to them, they report to the PKK leadership,” Fidan said in an interview with Al-Jazeera.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes, in a written statement on the day the call for disarmament was made, said: "This is an important development, and we hope it will help relieve our Turkish allies regarding the U.S. partners in northeastern Syria fighting against Daesh. We believe it will help bring peace to this troubled region."
The statement indicates that the U.S. expects the SDF, as they refer to the YPG, to no longer be questioned based on its PKK ties.
