After Sweden’s new Foreign minister announced his country would seize support to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, Kurdish groups in the country are more isolated than ever.
AANES Disappointed
The Kurdish agency North Press has reported that the AANES expressed its dissatisfaction with regard to that decision. It called the move by the new Swedish Foreign Minister disappointing, claiming it was made to “placate Turkey” to approve Sweden’s membership in NATO.
This came in a press release made by the AANES Foreign Relations Department, in which it said “We were disappointed by the statement of the new Swedish Foreign Minister, Mr. Tobias Billström,” about halting support for the Kurds in Syria, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ).
The Foreign Relations Department stressed people of north and east Syria and the AANES have been fighting terrorism “on behalf of all humanity” with the aim of achieving “peace and security.”
Kurds Criticize Syrian Rapprochement with Ankara
North Press reported that Badran Chia Kurd, co-chair of the AANES Foreign Relations Department, said on Wednesday rapprochement between the Turkish “occupation state” and Syrian government aims to foil any intra-Syrian dialogue.
Chia Kurd said, “The Turkish-Syrian rapprochement has two goals, first to curb any solution, political change and intra-Syria dialogue, second to foil successes of the Autonomous Administration and not applying its experience across Syria and return refugees even by force.”
He added, via Zoom App, that such rapprochement is clear evidence of Turkey’s “weakness,” according to Hawar, a local news agency operating in areas in north and east Syria.
He made his words during a dialogue session organized by the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) in the town of Fafin in the northern countryside of Aleppo, according to the SDC website.
Many Syrian political figures, clan leaders, and political parties representatives participated in the dialogue session.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Commander in Chief, during his participation in the session, considered that the normalization is a proof that the government is satisfied with the Turkish actions of occupying Syrian territories.
Chia Kurd went further, saying that the Turkish occupation state exploits the Russian-Ukrainian war and seeks agreements with all parties through Tehran and Sochi meetings in addition to the recent agreement with Sweden to approve its bid to NATO.
He stressed that normalization between the two countries does not pour into the interest of the Syrian people or government, rather it is “a new conspiracy.”
Regarding developments in Afrin, north of Aleppo, he said “Al-Nusra Front expansion in other areas will contribute to notable political changes in the near future.”
Under these changes, “we will be ready to start a dialogue with all parties,” he stressed.
Turkey launched three military operations against northern and northeastern regions in Syria. The first was “Euphrates Shield” operation in 2016 where it occupied Jarablus and al-Bab, the second was “Olive Branch” operation in 2018 where it occupied Afrin region, and the third was “Peace Spring” in 2019 which resulted in the occupation of the two cities of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad with their countryside.
The co-chair of the Foreign Relations Department highlighted that the AANES has a clear project to fulfill, it is ” brotherhood of peoples” for a democratic future in Syria and intra-Syrian dialogue.
The pro-government Athr Press added that the SDC held a dialogue forum in the northern countryside of Aleppo, in which the commander-in-chief of the SDF participated. The council stressed that “Turkey seeks to impose its policies on the region through Jabhat al-Nusra.” It noted that “its rapprochement with the Syrian government is evidence of the bankruptcy of its plans,” according to the Kurdish Hawar news agency.
Abdi referred to the recent moves of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), as saying: “The Turkish occupation planned to impose its policies by introducing the mercenaries of HTS into the region, because this organization can implement the agendas of the occupation further, and the occupation wanted to form a central authority to facilitate the implementation of its plans.”
Abdi said that after the recent rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara, “some mercenary groups saw that this policy did not serve them, so they went out against these rapprochements. The occupation through HTS wanted to give a lesson to these groups, warning them of the existence of an alternative to them” in order to remain under its orders.
“What has recently changed places of mercenaries and because the occupation saw that the mercenaries of HTS can implement its agendas, so it replaced them with other mercenaries who could not make any progress on the fronts against the SDF,” Abdi said.
He added: “The Turkish occupation is entrenching its plans through al-Qaeda, represented by HTS. It is asking for its help to occupy other areas in Syria.”
Regarding the Turkish rapprochement with Syria, Abdi said: “The most dangerous thing that the region is going through at the moment is Turkey’s occupation of Syrian areas, and its rapprochement with the government of Damascus. This contributes to the consolidation of the Turkish occupation of those areas, because there are no reactions to them.”
Abdi stressed that “the future of Syria is not rapprochement with Turkey, because the latter seeks to occupy Syrian territory and annex it to its territory as it did with the Iskenderun Brigade. However, the future of Syria is the reconciliation of the Syrian government and the Autonomous- Administration of northern and eastern Syria and therefore stability occurs, and security prevails.
Abdi has previously revealed that several rounds of dialogue have taken place between Damascus and the SDF, but they have not reached tangible results. He stressed that “it is not possible militarily to dismantle the SDF into individuals here and there, as these forces have continuous field missions to defend Syrian territory,” according to the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
