Turkey threatens offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters

Turkey threatened on Tuesday to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara’s conditions for a “bloodless” transition after the demise of President Bashar Assad.

“We will do what’s necessary” if the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) fail to agree to Turkish demands, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told CNNTurk television.

When asked what that might entail, he said a “military operation.”

Turkey considers the YPG, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist outfit linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a decades-old insurgency against the Turkish state.

Fidan says ultimatum is ‘obvious’

Assad’s fall to Islamist-led rebels last month raised the prospect of Turkey intervening in Syria against Kurdish forces accused by Ankara of links to the outlawed PKK.

“Those international fighters who came from Turkey, Iran and Iraq must leave Syria immediately. We see neither any preparation nor any intention in this direction right now and we are waiting,” Fidan said.

“The ultimatum we gave them (the YPG) through the Americans is obvious,” he added.

Over the last nine years, Turkey has conducted multiple ground operations in Syria to push Kurdish forces away from its border.

jsi/zc (AFP, Reuters)