ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey is willing to fight Syrian Kurdish-led forces alongside Damascus and considers the two countries "one state, one army," a Turkish defense ministry spokepserson warned on Thursday.
Ankara views Syria and Turkey’s security as closely interlinked and could intervene militarily if the Syrian government asks for support, Turkish media quoted the ministry spokesman as saying.
“We would like to reiterate that we do not view Syria’s security as separate from our own, and that, in line with the principle of ‘one state, one army,’ we will provide support, upon request, to Syria’s fight against terrorist organizations on the basis of the country’s unity and territorial integrity,” the defense ministry official said at a press conference.
Turkey considers the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) a terrorist organization, maintaining it is backed by Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.) The SDF denies the accusation.
The comments came after a week of fierce clashes between Kurdish forces and the Syrian Arab Army, who drove Kurdish forces out of Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo and attacked the SDF positions in the north.
Shortly after a ceasefire took effect in Aleppo, the Syrian army’s Operations Command on Tuesday declared additional Kurdish-held areas - Deir Hafer, Maskanah, and surrounding districts in eastern Aleppo - as “closed military zones.”
These areas, controlled by SDF, have in recent months been flashpoints for Damascus-aligned factions, which view their capture as a means to open a logistical corridor linking Aleppo to Raqqa province and to increase military pressure on the SDF along the Euphrates River.