ISTANBUL: An agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions in Syria’s northeast into the new Syrian national government will “serve peace,” Turkiye’s president said on Tuesday.
“The full implementation of the agreement reached yesterday will serve Syria’s security and peace. The winner will be all of our Syrian brothers,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a Ramadan fast breaking dinner.
Syria’s new authorities under interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa have sought to disband armed groups and establish government control over the entirety of the country since ousting long-time leader Bashar Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
On Monday, the Syrian presidency announced an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the autonomous Kurdish administration that has governed much of the northeast for the past decade into the national government.
The new accord is expected to be implemented by the end of the year.
The SDF — seen essential in the fight against Daesh terrorists — is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as an offshoot of the PKK, an outlawed group dominated by ethnic Kurds in Turkiye which has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
Turkiye, which has forged close relations with Sharaa, has pressed Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of the YPG’s control over wide parts of Syria.
On Tuesday, Erdogan said Turkiye attached “great importance to preserving the territorial integrity and unitary structure of our neighbor Syria.”
He added: “We see every effort to cleanse Syria of terrorism as a step in the right direction.”
The agreement comes nearly two weeks after a historic call by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Ocalan for the militant group to lay down its weapons and disband.
Erdogan says Syria’s agreement with Kurds will ‘serve peace’
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Erdogan says Syria’s agreement with Kurds will ‘serve peace’
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan: ‘The winner will be all of our Syrian brothers’
- Turkiye has pressed Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of the YPG’s control over wide parts of the country
14 migrants drown off Turkiye after chase ends in deadly collision
- Search and rescue operations were continuing by land, sea and air to locate any remaining people who may still be missing
ANKARA: At least 14 migrants drowned on Monday after a boat carrying them collided with a coast guard boat off Turkiye’s Mediterranean coast during a chase, officials said.
The incident occurred near the coast of Demre, in Antalya province, as the vessel carrying Afghans ignored calls to stop and attempted maneuvers at high-speed to escape the coast guard boats, the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Gov. Hulusi Sahin as saying.
Seven people were rescued from the sea by coast guard teams and given immediate medical care, Sahin said. Fourteen others who reached the shore were detained by gendarmerie units.
Search and rescue operations were continuing by land, sea and air to locate any remaining people who may still be missing.
Authorities have launched both a judicial and an administrative investigation into the incident, Anadolu said.
Separately, Turkiye has drawn up plans to deal with a potential inflow of people fleeing the war in neighboring Iran, Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said on Wednesday, with preparations including possible buffer zones along the frontier and tent camps.
There was currently no unusual movement at the three border gates along the Iran-Turkiye border, Ciftci added.
Speaking in Ankara, Ciftci said three contingency plans had been drawn up by authorities: managing any potential migrant flow on the Iranian side of the border; creating buffer zones along the frontier if movement cannot be stopped; and letting people into Turkiye under controlled conditions.
He added that Turkiye had prepared initial capacity to host up to 90,000 people in the event of a sudden inflow, including tent camps and temporary accommodation sites.
On Monday, hundreds of Iranians crossed the border into Turkiye. Others were reportedly waiting to cross. Ciftci said authorities had been informed that Iran was restricting its own citizens from leaving the country, while allowing Turkish nationals and third-country citizens to exit.
