ANKARA, Turkey--The United States does not support the Kurdish groups in northern Syria linking together the three cantons of Afrin, Kobane and Cizre along the Syrian-Turkish border, the US ambassador to Ankara said in an interview broadcast on Friday.
John Bass said that his country has two goals in its support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The first goal is to ensure the defeat of ISIS in Syria, especially along the Syrian-Turkish border, therefore eliminating the threat of the extremist group to Turkey. Secondly, this outcome should not come at the expense of creating other problems for Turkey, a NATO ally.
"[T]he other goal we have had is to approach this problem set in Syria and to ensure we conduct military operations in ways that do not create a long-term strategic problem for Turkey, our NATO ally," Bass told Turkish NTV.
"That is an important reason why we do not support, have never supported, connection of the so-called Kurdish cantons in Syria."
Kurds have three self-administered cantons located along Syria’s northwestern border with Turkey, collectively known as Rojava. Afrin canton in the west is separated from the eastern cantons of Kobane and Cizre by a 100 kilometre-long stretch that is now under control of Turkey and its allied militias. The lands between Afrin and Kobane cantons are demographically mixed.
Turkey opposes the Syrian Kurds advancing westward from Kobane to link up with Afrin. Ankara does not want to see the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) – the foremost armed group in the SDF – dominate the border region as Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
"We do not support anyone on the ground changing demography or changing political governance structures unilaterally based solely on their military success against Daesh," Bass said, using another name for ISIS.
Fawzi Sleman, spokesperson for the defence committee of Afrin canton, told Rudaw in late June that uniting the three Rojava cantons is decisive for the Kurdish administration.
But they are not receiving support from the Americans to realize that dream.
"We believe the future of Syria is for all Syrians to decide," Bass maintained, "not any individual armed group, even if those groups are involved in fighting Daesh."
Though the US does not support the aspirations of the Kurdish administration, the US-led global coalition is providing support for the SDF forces in Raqqa province where they launched their campaign, dubbed Wrath of Euphrates, to retake ISIS’ de facto capital.
But Bass made it clear that their support for the SDF does not include direct support to the Kurdish YPG.
"We have not provided sophisticated weapons to the YPG. We have not provided heavy weapons to the YPG."
He added they are not supporting the Kurdish Union Democratic Party (PYD), the ruling party in Rojava that has ties with the YPG.
When the SDF announced the second stage of the Raqqa operation on December 10, they said that an Arab armed group belonging to the Syrian al-Ghad al-Souri had joined the campaign upon a request from the global coalition, but that the Arab group will remain an independent force.
"We have been providing support to Syrian Arab groups working under the umbrella of what’s called the Syrian Democratic Forces. That umbrella group also includes the PYD," Bass said. "But we have not been providing direct support, we have not been providing weapons, we have not been providing ammunition to the PYD."
