Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa was level-headed on the new administration’s stance on the U.S.-backed PKK/YPG terrorist group. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) one day after al-Sharaa’s visit to Türkiye, Fidan said the current stand “satisfied Türkiye’s security needs.”
The minister signaled a cross-border offensive against the terrorist group last month if they don’t dissolve themselves, while Damascus has been negotiating with the group about the latter’s future in Syria in the post-Assad era. Fidan also said that the new rulers of Syria had no agenda involving federation or autonomy for any groups in that country.
The YPG, the Syria wing of the terrorist group PKK, which has killed thousands in Türkiye since the 1980s, carved out a self-styled autonomous entity for itself in Syria's northeast as the civil war raged in Türkiye's southern neighbor. When anti-regime forces led by al-Sharaa advanced to take back the country from the oppressive Assad regime in December, the Syrian National Army (SNA) of the opposition launched a parallel operation to drive the YPG out of the cities of Tal Rifaat and Manbij in the north. The YPG, which enjoyed relative immunity from the conflict during the Assad era, mulls its future as the new administration rejected the idea of autonomy for them. The country's new defense minister has recently stated that they can integrated into the post-Assad army but ruled out the idea of YPG having its own armed bloc within the army.
"We face problems that threaten us beyond our borders. Our primary expectation from al-Sharaa is to resolve problems in his country and to address the issues threatening Türkiye and the wider region. We expect the same from Iraq and Iran as well. Just as Türkiye do not tolerate threats to other countries, they should not tolerate threats against Türkiye," he said.
Fidan pointed out that the YPG/PKK exploited the crisis under Assad's rule and appeared to benefit from the assistance of other countries for its "so-called prison service" to hold members of the terrorist group Daesh. "Syria's future has no place for privileges exclusive to any group, any ethnicity or sect. This was also our impression (at the meeting with al-Sharaa)," Fidan said. "The Syrian administration has to have a wider perspective on this matter because no country should have its national unity and sovereignty threatened. No scenario to that extent should be realized," he said. "All ethnicities should be treated equally as citizens. Nobody should be treated with privileges for their identity, nor should they be ostracized because of their identity," he said.
On al-Sharaa's meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Fidan said the two leaders discussed rebuilding Syria, border security and counterterrorism, among other issues. "They had the opportunity to discuss issues frozen during the previous regime. Türkiye's potential role in the recovery of Syria was discussed. Steps to resolve security issues such as the YPG and Daesh were also discussed," he said. "It was a very fruitful meeting," he added.
U.S. troops in Syria are the major supporter of the YPG/PKK, providing military equipment and other resources to the terrorist group under the guise of a joint fight against Daesh in the country. Fidan cited reports about the possible withdrawal of troops under the new Trump administration and said the administration was clearly in a decision-making process about the issue. "We hope they make the right decision. We expect the U.S. to cut off support to the YPG," he said. The minister stated that the YPG/PKK occupied about one-third of Syrian territories in the eastern part of the Euphrates River and most of this region had a predominantly Arab population. "They set up a mechanism that may threaten social peace between Kurds and Arabs in Syria," he said. "Syria's Kurds have no issue with the Arab population and vice versa, but the YPG occupied a region populated by Arabs," he pointed out. The YPG "imported" ideology into Syria and established an order that relies on U.S. support for survival, said Fidan, whose previous tenure was head of the Turkish intelligence service that carries out precision strikes in Syria against notorious YPG/PKK members.
Fidan said they also discussed the state of YPG-run "prisons" for Daesh members, with al-Sharaa and al-Sharaa having "vision and capacity" to control those prisons. "If the need arises to ensure the national integrity of Syria, they will liberate their lands from the occupation of those people (YPG). They will either send members of the PKK to the countries they arrived from or eliminate them," he added. The minister said the YPG had many terrorists in its ranks who arrived from Iran, Iraq, Türkiye or Europe, and they should be driven out. "We see a will to resolve this matter through compromise and negotiations. We hope this can be achieved," the minister said.
"It is wrong to treat the PKK/YPG as a force fighting Daesh. This is how certain U.S. bureaucrats portray this matter in their own country," Fidan said. The minister, who recently signaled joint action by Türkiye, Iraq, Syria and Jordan against Daesh, said on Wednesday that they would take steps to establish a joint mechanism. "Meetings will be held with these countries on foreign affairs, defense and intelligence for the fight against Daesh," he said. "We pursue regional solutions to problems of the region. When non-regional hegemony is imposed to resolve the problems here, they leave a negative trail behind," he said. "An international coalition (against Daesh) requires a certain budget and manpower. They will be spared from spending on these if they leave. We want to resolve problems in our region on our own," he stated.
Türkiye also seeks cooperation from Iraq in the fight against the PKK. The PKK's senior cadres are believed to be in hiding in mountainous territories in Iraq's north and Türkiye has troops in the same region where it occasionally carries out operations against them. Under Erdoğan, Türkiye moved closer to achieving full counterterrorism cooperation with Iraq against the PKK. Iraqi and Turkish leaders increased the number of meetings on the matter in the past two years and Baghdad last year declared the PKK a banned organization. Fidan said Turkish diplomacy achieved results in the evolution of Turkish-Iraqi relations on the issue. "A security mechanism is established. The PKK was banned and not easily tolerated by Iraq any longer," he said. He noted that Iraq still needed to take further steps, particularly in Sinjar, a town liberated from the terrorist group Daesh, only to fall into the hands of another terrorist group, the PKK. "The government's troops and Hashd al-Shaabi confined the PKK to an isolated area in Sinjar and we hope it will be completely eliminated," he said.
"Iraqi Prime Minister Mr. (Mohammed S.) Al Sudani clearly understands that Iraq needs to shed its image as a country of conflict where uncontrolled armed groups roam freely. Such a country would be deprived of investments and public services. Mr. Sudani is a political leader who wants to serve his people," he said.
Fidan also spoke about U.S. sanctions against Türkiye under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) that has been imposed after Ankara acquired S-400 defense systems from Russia. Fidan said the sanctions contradicted the spirit of the alliance Türkiye and the U.S. always had. He said they had been engaged in diplomacy for the past one and a half years and had resumed a strategic partnership mechanism. He underlined that the U.S. should eliminate sanctions as Türkiye was a close ally of Washington in NATO. He said they were looking forward to working with the new administration in the U.S., but the course of relations was unclear now as the administration did not start working fully. "We are preparing (for policies of the new administration). We have many topics to discuss with the new administration advancing and our relations in various fields, from commerce and technology to defense," he said.
On Türkiye's relations with the former adversary and neighbor Greece, Fidan said Türkiye clung to its existing position, which was the resolution of outstanding issues through dialogue. "We inherited a batch of problems and issues disputed by both sides. It is crucial to resolve them through negotiations and dialogue while avoiding inciting, provocative steps," he said. The minister said Türkiye was "a way for some politicians in Greece to score in domestic politics. The responsible, mature stand of Türkiye render such provocations ineffective," he said.
Fidan said President Erdoğan would meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in April, and the two sides would convene a high-level strategic cooperation council in Türkiye. He stated that he met his Greek counterpart in Qatar last week and they discussed preparations for the April meeting.
After a long period of tensions marked by disputes over irregular migration, the Cyprus dispute, energy exploration and territorial sovereignty in the Aegean, Türkiye and Greece have been taking confidence-building steps for a fragile normalization of their relations, which moved into a new chapter with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s landmark visit to Athens in December. While officials on both sides have expressed commitment to maintaining the positive climate, the issues are longstanding and deep-rooted and neither side expects the process to be without turbulence, particularly in the Aegean, where Turkish and Greek jets often scuffled until very recently. Ankara has repeatedly warned its neighbor against entering an arms race with Türkiye, particularly on building a military presence on the disputed Aegean islands since the 1960s, in violation of postwar treaties. Greece's purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. and the upping of defense budgets are meant to counter the protection of Turkish interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece says it needs to defend the islands against a potential attack from Türkiye, but Turkish officials said continued militarization of the islands could lead to Ankara questioning their ownership.
