ISTANBUL: Turkey is ready to provide military support to Syria’s new Islamist-led government set up by rebels who overthrew Bashar al-Assad if it requests it, Defence Minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday.
He said the new leadership should be given “a chance” and that Turkey was “ready to provide the necessary support” if needed, in remarks reported by state news agency Anadolu and other Turkish media outlets.
“It is necessary to see what the new administration will do. We think it is necessary to give them a chance,“ Guler said of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel alliance, which is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch and designated a “terrorist” organisation by many Western governments.
HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric and its transitional government has insisted the rights of all Syrians would be protected along with the rule of law.
“We have military training and cooperation agreements with many countries. We are ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it,“ the Turkish defence minister said, without specifying what might be provided.
The new administration, Guler said, had pledged to “respect all government institutions, the UN and other international organisations” and promised to report any evidence of chemical weapons to the OPCW watchdog.
Kurdish question
Turkey’s top priority in Syria was to rid the country of Kurdish separatist fighters — a goal which was supported by the new government, Guler said.
“In this new period, the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation will be eliminated in Syria, sooner or later. Both we and the new administration in Syria want this,“ he said.
“We have no problems with our Kurdish brothers living in Iraq and Syria. Our problem is only and exclusively with terrorists.”
The YPG (Syrian Kurdish People’s Defence Units) makes up the bulk of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), a key US ally that defeated the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate in Syria in 2019.
Ankara views the YPG as an extension of its domestic foe, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), which has led a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
By extension, it sees the SDF as a terror outfit, setting it sharply at odds with Washington, which has called the group “crucial” for preventing a resurgence of IS group jihadists in Syria.
“Our priority (in Syria) is the liquidation of the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation,“ Guler said.
“We have expressed this to our American friends. We expect them to re-evaluate their positions.”
His remarks echoed comments on Friday by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who said Turkey would give the new Syrian government time to tackle the problem.
“The elimination of the YPG is our strategic goal. We will wait for our brothers in Syria to eliminate the threat in their own land,“ he told the private NTV channel, saying the Kurdish group’s leadership “must leave the country”.
