Turkey expects foreign countries will withdraw support for Kurdish fighters in Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, as Ankara seeks to isolate Kurds who have long fought alongside U.S. troops.
Germany's foreign minister later said Kurdish forces should disarm and integrate into Syria's national security structure, and Washington's top diplomat for the Middle East said the U.S. was working on a "managed transition" for the U.
S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, in northern Syria. Speaking to reporters on the flight home from a summit in Egypt on Thursday, Erdogan said there was no longer any reason for outsiders to back Kurdish YPG fighters.
His office released his comments Friday. The Kurdish YPG has been the main force in the alliance, but Turkey considers the group an extension of the PKK, which has long fought the Turkish state and is banned as a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and the EU. In his remarks, Erdogan compared the U.
S.-backed YPG to Islamic State, and he said neither group had any future in Syria. "In the upcoming period, we do not believe that any power will continue to collaborate with terrorist organizations.
The heads of terrorist organizations such as Islamic State and PKK/YPG will be crushed in the shortest possible time." German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said after talks with her Turkish counterpart in Ankara that the security of Kurds was essential for a free Syria, but that Turkey's.