SDF accepts Russia-brokered ceasefire, withdraws from Turkish border

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has accepted the ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey last week and agreed to completely withdraw its Kurdish-led force from the Syria-Turkey border, the SDF said Sunday. 

Speaking to Rudaw in Amuda, northwest of Qamishli, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said the Kurdish-led force has begun withdrawing to a position 32 km from the border, as demanded by the Turkish government.

“After a few days of dialogue and discussion between our general commander and the Russian government and army, and in accordance with the Sochi Agreement, and in order to protect the security of the region, and halting the dangers of an invasion and a new conflict in the region, our forces, under the guarantor of Russia, are withdrawing from the region as deep as 32 km from the border,” Bali said. 

“And on the basis of the same guarantee from Russia, a political dialogue with the central government in Damascus will start to find a political solution. Our forces will take necessary measures and step on these foundations,” the press spokesman added.

Russia and Turkey reached an agreement in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday to pause Turkey’s military offensive in northern Syria for six days to facilitate the withdrawal of the SDF. The deal came just as an earlier US-brokered agreement for a five-day ceasefire came to an end. 

“After extensive discussions with the Russian Federation on our previous objection to some terms of the memorandum, we agreed to the implementation of the deal, based on the Sochi Agreement of October 22, 2019, to stop the Turkish aggression on northeastern Syria,” the SDF said in a statement.

“The SDF is redeploying to new positions away from the Turkish-Syrian border across northeast Syria in accordance with the terms of the agreement in order to stop the bloodshed and to protect the inhabitants of the region from Turkish attacks. Our forces in the border zone are being replaced by border guards of the central government.”

The general command called on Moscow to help facilitate talks between the Kurdish-led administration and the Russian-backed regime in Damascus. 

The two sides struck a deal earlier this month to allow Syrian Arab Army troops to secure the northern border against Turkish attack. The day-to-day functions of the Kurdish-held areas remain, for the time being, under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES).

“As the Syrian Democratic Forces, while assuring the public of our full commitment to defending the people and the region, we call on the Russian Federation to fulfill its commitments and ensure a constructive dialogue between the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and the central government of Damascus,” the statement concluded. 

The SDF is a coalition of the Kurdish and Arab forces which led the ground war against the Islamic State group (ISIS) in north and northeast Syria with US-led coalition backing. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forms the backbone of the SDF.

However, Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian chapter of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group fighting for the greater cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey, which is considered by Turkey, the US, and the EU as a terrorist organization. 

Turkey launched Operation Spring Peace on October 9 with the stated aim of pushing Kurdish forces back from its southern border. 

Its troop deployments, airstrikes, artillery, and Syrian proxy militias have displaced more than 300,000 people from the border areas and killed scores of civilians, leading to international condemnation. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was effectively given the green light to attack when his US counterpart Donald Trump abruptly withdrew the small US force from the area.