Turkey warns U.S., Russia against supporting Syrian Kurds

The United States is facing a problem in Syria which Russia does not face.

All the rebel groups in Syria are interested in toppling the Assad regime as much – and some of them, at least in the short run, even more so – as they are interested in fighting ISIS. The U.S. strategy in Syria has so far been a failure because armed Sunni groups are not going to fight the Sunni fundamentalist ISIS on behalf of an Alawite-Shi’a Assad regime. Many anti-regime rebel groups — and countries supporting them, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States – refused to sigh-up to the U.S. strategy of fighting ISIS unless such a fight would also include a sustained military effort to replace the minority Alawite regime with a majority Sunni regime in Syria.

The Kurds are Sunni, but they are an ethnic minority which has not always fared well under Sunni regimes in the region. Moreover, the Syrian Kurds’ support for the independence aspirations of the Turkish Kurds has been another source of tensions between Syrian (and Iraqi) Kurds and Syrian (and Iraqi) Sunnis, who support the Sunni government of Turkey.

Russia can offer the Syrian Kurds more open support than the United States can, even if such support means that the Kurds would be more effective in fighting Isis, a goal which is not at the top of Russia’s priorities in Syria – in the knowledge that the Syrian Kurds are not likely to turn their guns on Assad.

Thus, it was not a surprise when news emerged last week that a top Russian official held talks with the PYD leader, Salih Muslim, to discuss the fight against ISIS.

Turkey’s military actions in Syria are a mirror image of Russia’s military actions there. Russia says it is “fighting terrorism” in Syria, but more than 90 percent of its bombing attacks have targeted moderate, non-ISIS Syrian rebels, some of them backed by the United States.

Turkey is also waging a “war on terror” in Syria, but the overwhelming majority of its airstrikes have targeted PKK and PYD targets in the Kurdish region of Syria, not ISIS targets.

Davutoğlu said on Wednesday that there was an “organic bond” between the PKK and the PYD. “We know that some of those who fled from [Turkish] operations against the PKK in northern Iraq joined the ranks of the PYD in Syria. We have a clear stance against terrorist organizations which waged a war against Turkey. We have the same attitude against their affiliates,” Davutoğlu said.

He warned the United States and its Western and regional allies against any cooperation with the PYD. “Just as the United States and other friendly allies fight against al-Qaeda linked groups, Turkey is determined to fight against the PKK and its affiliates.”

The prime minister also warned that nobody could guarantee that the ammunitions provided for Syrian Kurdish groups would not end up in Turkey. “We will never allow a weapons stockpile in Syria to be inserted into Turkey,” he added.