Two Kurdish officials rejected on Tuesday any role for Ankara in the safe zone north of Syria, with one of them saying that a reactivation of the Adana Agreement means Syria’s surrender to Turkey.
“Any Turkish intervention in northern Syria would complicate things,” Salih Muslim, head of the main Kurdish political party, the Democratic Political Union, or PYD told Asharq Al-Awsat.
He said Syria’s Kurds reject any Turkish role in the area. “Residents should consider the presence of Turkey as an invasion, and should therefore confront it,” he said.
For her part, co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Elham Ahmad said she has informed US officials that it is “unacceptable” to allow Turkey to intervene in Syria.
The two officials spoke on the eve of meetings of Turkey-US working groups to discuss the establishment of a safe zone in northeast Syria and the implementation of a roadmap in Manbij and the countryside of Aleppo.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will also likely hold talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“We reject any Turkish presence and we demand an internationally-sponsored security zone in the presence of international observers against any Turkish intervention,” Muslim said.
He said Kurds need protection facing any possible aggression.
Last month, Trump suggested that a 20-mile “safe zone” be created in northeastern Syria, after which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would coordinate setting it up with Washington.
Western diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that head of Syria's Tomorrow Movement Ahmad Jarba proposed to US and Turkish officials and to Kurdistan Region leader Masoud Barzani deploying 10,000 Arab and Kurdish fighters in the safe zone.
But Muslim rejected such proposal.
