ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Syrian Kurds to “complete their integration” with Syria’s new government after the announcement of a comprehensive ceasefire, in a transcript shared by his office Wednesday.
“The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) must keep their word. They must complete their integration with Syria,” Erdogan told Turkish journalists late Tuesday on board a plane returning from Azerbaijan.
Syria announced a comprehensive ceasefire with Kurdish forces after a meeting on Tuesday between Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi that followed deadly clashes in the northern city of Aleppo.
Syria’s authorities, who took power last year after overthrowing Bashar Assad, have rejected Kurdish demands for a decentralized government.
The issue has added to tensions with the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of the north and northeast, while differences between the two sides have held up implementation of a March 10 deal on integrating the Kurds’ civil and military institutions into the state.
Erdogan said: “Syria’s territorial integrity is non-negotiable for us. We cannot accept any stance against this.”
His government has supported Syria’s new rulers led by Sharaa.
Between 2016 and 2019, Turkiye launched three offensives in northern Syria against Syrian Kurdish fighters, who form the backbone of the SDF, and against the Daesh group.
Erdogan urges Syria’s Kurds to integrate with new government
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Erdogan urges Syria’s Kurds to integrate with new government
- “The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) must keep their word,” Erdogan told Turkish journalists
- Syria’s authorities have rejected Kurdish demands for a decentralized government
HRW says Israel’s Lebanon evacuation risks violating laws of war
- “Calling on everyone who lives south of the Litani (River) to evacuate immediately raises serious legal and humanitarian red flags,” said Kaiss
- “How are older people, the sick and people with disabilities going to be able to evacuate immediately?”
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that the Israeli military’s call for residents of vast areas of southern Lebanon to evacuate raised “serious risks of violations of the laws of war.”
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war when Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel with Israel conducting air strikes across the country and its troops pushing into border towns.
On Thursday, Israel renewed its warning to residents of hundreds of square kilometers (miles) of southern Lebanon to evacuate because of military action.
“Calling on everyone who lives south of the Litani (River) to evacuate immediately raises serious legal and humanitarian red flags and fears for the safety of civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“How are older people, the sick and people with disabilities going to be able to evacuate immediately? And how will their safety be guaranteed as they leave?” he said in a statement from the rights group.
HRW said “the sweeping nature” of Israel’s call raised “concerns that their purpose is not to protect civilians,” adding that the area was home to hundreds of thousands of people.
The evacuation call “raises serious risks of violations of the laws of war,” it added.
Lebanese authorities said dozens of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes since Monday.
