Syrian Kurds on Wednesday rejected a Turkish-controlled buffer zone in the north of the country on the border between the two countries, under an initiative proposed by Washington with Ankara´s approval, in an effort to curb the consequences of the decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria.
Turkey has recently threatened to launch a large-scale attack on areas controlled by the Kurdish People´s Protection Units in northern and northeastern Syria, putting Washington in an awkward position among its allies and prompting it to propose an understanding that satisfies all parties.
One of the leading Kurdish leaders in Syria and one of the architects of self-rule, Aldar Khalil, told AFP on Wednesday he rejected any Turkish role in the "safe zone" to be built.
"Turkey is not independent and not neutral, which means it is a party to this conflict," he said.
The Kurdish rejection of any Turkish role after the invitation of US President Donald Trump Monday to establish a "safe area" offer more than 30 kilometers in Syria along the Turkish border, and the day after the announcement of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that his forces will establish this area between the Turkish border and units sites Kurdish, backed by Washington.
Trump´s announcement last month of his sudden decision to withdraw all his forces from Syria, fearing the Kurds would pave the way for a broad Turkish offensive, has long been threatened by Ankara to push Kurdish militants away from its borders.
"Trump wants to achieve these safe areas through Turkish cooperation," Khalil said. "But any role for Turkey will change the equation and the region will not be safe."
"We can draw a dividing line between Turkey and northern Syria by bringing in UN troops to maintain security and peace or pressure Turkey not to attack our regions," he said. "We can not accept other options because they affect the sovereignty of Syria and the sovereignty of our own administration."
The establishment of the region was the focus of a telephone conversation on Monday evening between the Turkish president and his American counterpart. The Turkish presidency said that they "discussed the idea of ​​establishing a security zone to be cleared of terrorism in the north of the country."
The Turkish chief of staff is scheduled to meet with his US counterpart Wednesday in Brussels to determine the "mechanisms" for establishing the "safe zone", Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.
Moscow, Damascus´s main ally on Wednesday, rushed to reject the proposal. "We are convinced that the only and best solution is to transfer these areas to the control of the Syrian government, Syrian security forces and administrative structures," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday.
The future of Kurdish protection units is one of the main issues of disagreement between Washington and Ankara. Washington´s attempts to reassure the Kurds, its most prominent allies in Syria, have angered Turkey, its ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Analysts say Trump´s proposal is ambiguous. "It is not clear what Trump wants to say, and there has not yet been any clarification from the US administration," Kurdish researcher Mutlu Geofferoglu told AFP.
Despite its decision to withdraw nearly 2,000 US troops from Syria without a clear deadline, Washington is keen to underline the need to protect Kurdish people´s protection units for their effective participation in fighting the Islamic state.
For its part, Damascus described Erdogan´s comments on his country´s readiness to establish a "safe area" in northern Syria as "irresponsible."
The official news agency "SANA" quoted a source in the Foreign Ministry as saying that Erdogan´s remarks "once again confirm that this regime patronizes terrorists (...) only deals with the language of occupation and aggression."
The discrepancy between Turkey and the Kurds shows the complexity of the conflict in Syria since 2011, which has killed more than 360,000 people and devastated infrastructure.
Ankara considers the Kurdish units a "terrorist" group closely linked to the PKK, which has been waging an insurgency against it for more than 30 years. It does not look favorably on the self-governing rule that the Kurds have declared during the years of conflict since 2011 and fear that they will have independent autonomy near their borders.
After decades of marginalization, the influence of the Syrian Kurds gradually increased in northern Syria, especially after the withdrawal of Syrian forces from their regions starting in 2012. They managed to establish self-administration and establish military and security forces, as well as the establishment of public institutions and the revival of their language and heritage.
The protection units of the Kurdish people of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the second military force controlling the land after government forces, control about 30 percent of the country, including important gas and oil fields.
