ANKARA: Turkiye is ready to provide military support to Syria’s new government set up by rebels who overthrew Bashar al-Assad if it requests it, Defence Minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday.
He said the new leadership should be given “a chance” and that Turkiye was “ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it”, reported by Turkish media outlets.
“It is necessary to see what the new administration will do. We think it is necessary to give them a chance,” Guler said of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel alliance, which is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch and designated a “terrorist” organisation by many Western governments.
However, HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric and its transitional government has insisted the rights of all Syrians would be protected along with the rule of law.
The new administration, Guler said, had pledged to “respect all government institutions, the United Nations and other international organisations” and promised to report any evidence of chemical weapons to the OPCW watchdog.
Since 2016, Turkiye has mounted four military operations across growing swathes of northern Syria, citing threats to its national security.
Turkiye is estimated to maintain a few thousand troops in towns including Afrin, Azez and Jarablus in northwestern Syria and Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad in the northeast.
Ankara may discuss and reevaluate the issue of Turkiye’s military presence in Syria with the new Syrian administration “when necessary conditions arise”, Guler said.
Eliminating ‘terrorists’
Turkiye’s priority remains the elimination of the Kurdish YPG militia, Syrian opposition group, and it has made this clear to Washington, Guler said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls some of Syria’s largest oil fields, is the main ally in the US coalition against the Daesh. It is spearheaded by the YPG, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose fighters have battled the Turkish state for 40 years.
“In the new period, the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation in Syria will be eliminated sooner or later,” Guler said. “Members of the organisation coming from outside Syria will leave Syria. Those who are Syrian will lay down their weapons.”
Guler said Turkiye saw no sign of a resurgence of Daesh in Syria, contrary to the US view.
“Has anyone heard of any attacks by Daesh terrorists in Syria in the last three years? We don’t see or hear anything about Daesh at the moment,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group.
Turkiye has in the past told the US that Ankara could deploy three commando brigades in Syria to fight Daesh, and to run al-Hol, the detention camp for the group’s families, Guler said, adding that Washington had rejected both offers.
“Instead, they cooperated with the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation under the banner of fighting Daesh. But you can’t fight one terrorist organisation with another terrorist organisation.”
Asked about the future involvement in Syria of Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad which last weekend granted him asylum, Guler said he saw no sign of a complete Russian withdrawal.
Russia, he said, is moving its military assets from different parts of Syria to its two bases in the country – the Hmeimim air base at Latakia and a naval base in Tartous. “I don’t think the Russians are going to leave [Syria]. They’ll do everything they can to stay,” he said.
