The Turkish defence ministry announced that its security forces killed 24 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and Syria over the past week. Turkish forces have continued attacks in the region after a call for disarmament from the PKK leader and a separate agreement between U.S.-backed Kurds and the new government in Damascus.
During a briefing in Ankara, a defence ministry source expressed the agreement between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus remains unchanged Turkey’s commitment to counter-terrorism in Syria and that it continues to insist that the YPG militia, which controls the SDF, disband and disarm.
The Turkish state views the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which oversees much of northeast Syria, as a terrorist outfit connected with the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has carried out a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. It has conducted several cross-border operations against the group.
On March 1, 2025, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) unilaterally ended the insurgency in its forty-year insurgency against the Turkish state. Just days earlier, the PKK’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, asked the militants to disarm. While the PKK agreed to the appeal, it also urged Ankara to release Ocalan to facilitate the disarmament of the organization. There has been a warm reception in Turkey for the PKK announcement.
Whereas, at the start of 2025, Ankara threatened to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria if they did not comply with Ankara’s conditions for a “bloodless” transition after the cessation of President Bashar Assad.
“We will do what’s necessary” if the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) fail to agree to Turkish demands, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said. When questioned what that might entail, he stated a “military operation.”
Assad’s fall to Islamist-led rebels last month raised the prospect of Turkey intervening in Syria against Kurdish forces blamed by Turkey for ties to the outlawed PKK.
“Those international fighters who came from Turkey, Iran and Iraq must leave Syria immediately. We see neither any preparation nor any intention in this direction right now, and we are waiting,”
Fidan said.
“The ultimatum we gave them (the YPG) through the Americans is obvious,”
he also said.
Through multiple ground operations in Syria, Turkey has pushed Kurdish forces away from its border.
