Turkiye’s presence in neighbouring Syria is to stop the war-torn country falling under the sway of terror groups, a Turkish Defence Ministry source said on Thursday after Damascus said a withdrawal of troops was not a prerequisite for better relations with Ankara.
Turkish forces and Turkiye-backed rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria, and Ankara has launched successive cross-border offensives since 2016, mainly to clear the area of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the U.S. but which it mistrusts.
Turkiye sees the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a “terrorist” group. “Turkiye’s presence in Syria prevents the division of Syrian territory and the creation of a terror corridor there,” the Ministry source told presspersons speaking on condition of anonymity. “We want to see a democratic and prosperous Syria, not a Syria plagued by instability and terrorist organisations,” the same source added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who had supported rebel efforts to topple Syria’s Bashar al-Assad — has in recent months sought rapprochement with Damascus, inviting Mr. Assad to Turkey. Mr. Assad said on Sunday that the withdrawal of Turkish forces from its territory was not a prerequisite to a rapprochement.
