SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi on Thursday called on international actors to prevent any Turkish military operation in northern that will create a new humanitarian crisis.
On May 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would launch a cross-border operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a “terrorist group” linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“We are concerned about new Turkish threats which pose high risk on northern Syria,” Abdi said in a tweet.
“Any offensive will divide Syrians, create a new humanitarian crisis, and displace original inhabitants and IDPs,” he added, using an acronym for internally displaced persons.
Abdi also said any new escalation would negatively affect the group’s campaign against Islamic State (ISIS).
“We call on actors to prevent any new tragedies and support de-escalation,” Abdi tweeted.
Ankara has conducted three incursions into northern Syria since 2016, seizing hundreds of kilometers of land and pushing some 30 km deep into the country, in operations targeting mainly the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG forces.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned Turkey against any military operation against the Syrian Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria.
Blinken called on Turkey to stick to ceasefire lines established in 2019 after Erdogan renewed threats to “clean up” Tal Rifaat and Manbij of Kurdish fighters.
“It’s something that we would oppose,” Blinken told a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, according to AFP.
“The concern that we have is that any new offensive would undermine regional stability [and] provide malign actors with opportunities to exploit instability,” Blinken said.
The United States has partnered with Syrian Kurdish fighters to fight Islamic State (ISIS) in war-battered Syria. But Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters part of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered “terrorists” by Ankara.
