BEIRUT: The commander of Kurdish forces that control northeast Syria said on Friday that his group is in direct contact with Turkiye and that he would be open to improving ties, including by meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The public comments represented a significant diplomatic overture by Mazloum Abdi, whose Syrian Democratic Forces fought Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels during Syria’s 14-year civil war.
Turkiye has said the main Kurdish group at the core of the SDF is indistinguishable from the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which decided earlier this month to disband after 40 years of conflict with Turkiye.
Abdi told regional broadcaster Shams TV in an interview aired on Friday that his group was in touch with Turkiye, without saying how long the communication channels had been open.
“We have direct ties, direct channels of communication with Turkiye, as well as through mediators, and we hope that these ties are developed,” Abdi said. There was no immediate comment from Turkiye on Abdi’s remarks.
He noted his forces and Turkish fighters “fought long wars against each other” but that a temporary truce had brought a halt to those clashes for the last two months. Abdi said he hoped the truce could become permanent.
When asked whether he was planning to meet Erdogan, Abdi said he had no current plans to do so but “I am not opposed... We are not in a state of war with Turkiye and in the future, ties could be developed between us. We’re open to this.”
The Al-Monitor news website reported on Friday that Turkiye had proposed a meeting between Abdi and a top Turkish official, possibly Turkiye’s foreign minister or its intelligence chief.
A Turkish diplomatic source denied the report, saying “the claims about Turkiye and our country’s authorities” in the story were “not true,” without elaborating.
In December, Turkiye and the SDF agreed on a US-mediated ceasefire after fighting broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew Bashar Assad.
Abdi in March signed a deal with Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to incorporate the semi-autonomous administration of northeast Syria into the main state institutions based in Damascus.
On Thursday, Erdogan accused the SDF of “stalling” implementation of that deal.
In the interview, Abdi denied accusations that the SDF was in contact with Israel.
“People have accused us of this. In this interview, I am saying publicly that we have no ties with Israel,” he said.
But he said his group supported good ties with Syria’s neighbors. When asked if that included Israel, Abdi responded, “with everyone.”
Syrian Kurdish commander in touch with Turkiye, open to meeting Erdogan
https://arab.news/9yqac
Syrian Kurdish commander in touch with Turkiye, open to meeting Erdogan
Amnesty says Algeria unlawfully returned Tunisia asylum seeker
- Amnesty International said Makhlouf was handed over to Tunisian police on January 18 without prior notice to him or his lawyers, in a move the group called “unlawful refoulement”
TUNIS: Global rights group Amnesty accused Algerian authorities on Monday of breaching international law by forcibly returning a political dissident to Tunisia, even though he was a registered asylum seeker.
Seifeddine Makhlouf, a former parliamentarian and critic of Tunisian President Kais Saied, was reportedly sentenced to prison for “plotting against state security” before his return to the North African country.
Makhlouf, who is the leader of the Al Karama party, sought asylum in Algeria in July 2024 after facing detention in Tunisia, and registered as an asylum seeker with the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
Amnesty International said Makhlouf was handed over to Tunisian police on January 18 without prior notice to him or his lawyers, in a move the group called “unlawful refoulement.”
“Makhlouf’s forced return is a violation of the principle of non-refoulement,” Amnesty’s MENA deputy chief Sara Hashash said in a statement published by the group.
“By handing him over to Tunisian authorities without allowing him any opportunity to contest the decision or assessing the risks he faces in Tunisia... Algeria has breached its obligations under international human rights law, including the Refugee Convention,” she added.
Saied froze parliament in July 2021 and seized far-reaching executive powers in what critics have called a “coup.”
Since then, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Amnesty said Makhlouf was later imprisoned in Algeria for irregular entry and placed in administrative detention, during which he was denied access to the UN refugee agency.
The rights group said Makhlouf was arrested upon his arrival in Tunisia to serve sentences handed down in his absence.
Reports said a Tunisian court sentenced Makhlouf on January 13 to five years in prison for “plotting against state security.”
The Amnesty statement called for “verdicts rendered in absentia to be quashed and for a new and fair trial to be held before an independent and impartial court.”
Hashash warned that Makhlouf’s case reflects wider regional repression, calling his extradition “particularly alarming given the escalating crackdown on dissent in Tunisia, where the judiciary has been increasingly weaponized to silence political opposition.”
She said that Algeria’s actions “set a dangerous precedent,” adding that “bilateral cooperation now takes precedence over the most fundamental principles of international human rights and refugee law.”
