Ferhat Abdi Şahin, the wanted ringleader of YPG, the Syrian wing of the terrorist group PKK, expressed disillusionment from what he called “weak” U.S. support.
Statements of Şahin to Agence France-Press (AFP) on Sunday followed a terror attack in the capital of Ankara that killed five people on Oct. 23. PKK claimed responsibility for the attack after Turkish authorities identified two members of the terrorist group as the perpetrators. Following the attack, Turkish security forces launched a string of air strikes both in Iraq and Syria in the areas controlled by PKK/YPG. Şahin complained that air strikes targeted “infrastructure” in Syria. He was referring to oil facilities where his group, which took control of the region amid a power vacuum created by Syria’s civil war, were gathered.
He criticized YPG’s U.S. allies for “not protecting” them, saying that the position of the U.S.-led coalition “seems weak.” Despite protests from Ankara, Washington went on to cooperate with YPG under the guise of fighting against Daesh, another terrorist group, through a coalition it established.
"Their response is not at the level required to stop the attacks, and pressure must be put on Türkiye," Şahin added, saying the strikes on Syria "not only concern us but also affect their forces." The U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5 could also weaken support for his group if Donald Trump is elected, according to Şahin.
In 2019, Trump announced a decision to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria. "In 2019, we had an unsuccessful experience with the administration of U.S. President Trump," Şahin said. "But we are confident that the U.S. ... makes its decisions based on strategic interests in the region,” he added.
While the U.S. considers the YPG a key partner in the fight against Daesh in Syria, it does not recognize the YPG as a terrorist group, although it does acknowledge the PKK as such.
This issue remains a major sticking point in relations between the two NATO allies.
The U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh was formed in September 2014 to fight the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. The coalition has members from nearly 87 countries and organizations.
The U.S. has approximately 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria as part of the coalition against Daesh, which once held roughly a third of the two countries but was territorially defeated in Iraq at the end of 2017 and in Syria in 2019.
Washington’s Syria policy is focused on fighting against Daesh remnants and training PKK/YPG partners in the region.
Since 2015, the PKK/YPG has occupied several Syrian provinces, including Arab-majority Deir el-Zour, a resource-rich region bordering Iraq, bisected by the Euphrates River and home to dozens of tribal communities.
The terrorist group has forced many locals to migrate, bringing in its members to change the regional demographic structure, conducting arbitrary arrests, kidnapping children of local tribes for forced recruitment and assassinating tribe leaders to yoke local groups.
It has also seized the region's oil wells – Syria's largest – and smuggles oil to the Syrian regime, despite U.S. sanctions, to generate revenue for its activities.
U.S. forces in Syria have trained thousands of YPG/PKK terrorists in their military bases in the region under the pretext of combating terrorism. The U.S. has also provided YPG/PKK terrorists with huge amounts of weapons and combat equipment. Türkiye, which has troops inside Syria, and Turkish-backed opposition groups in Syria's northwest routinely clash with the PKK/YPG, which seeks to establish a terror corridor along the country's border.
Ankara, which has taken some steps for possible normalization with Damascus since last year, has also repeatedly called on its NATO ally to cut off support to the PKK/YPG.
