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Turkey
An ENKS delegation poses for a photo with Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara, February 19, 2020. Photo: Social Media
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said late Friday that he warned the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) in February not to make deals with the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a military wing of the ruling authorities in northeast Syria.
This is the first time Ankara has commented on ongoing unity talks between Kurdish parties in northeast Syria.
“I told them that they should not make deals with the PKK/YPG. We used to have talks with and support them [ENKS]. In February, each of them told me how the PKK/YPG had killed their relatives and jailed their close friends or family members - some are still in jail. They said they did not and would not unite with this terrorist organization,”Cavusoglu told the pro-government A Haber TV on Friday.
The minister also claimed that Ankara is not against the Kurds, saying that they have previously asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “to grant Syrian Kurds identity cards and recognize their rights.”
Ankara regards the YPG as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – designated a terror organization in Turkey.
The YPG presence in northeast Syria prompted Turkey, facilitated by the withdrawal of US troops, to invade the area in October 2019, citing “terror concerns.”
International efforts to create a Kurdish state in northeast Syria – known to Kurds as Rojava – have “failed” as a result of Turkish military action, Cavusoglu added.
The relations between the ENKS and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) have been thorny for years.
The ENKS - which has close ties to Ankara- accuses the PYD of being unwilling to share power, jailing its members and closing party offices.
Mediated by Masoud Barzani, then-president of the Kurdistan Region, power-sharing talks began between the ENKS and the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), the umbrella group for the ruling PYD and its allies, in 2014.
Initiated in late October by Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a new round of unity talks are ongoing.
International pressure
The unity talks have been supported by the international community, namely the US, France and Russia.
France held talks with both sides in early May.
Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister and special presidential representative on the Middle East, told Kurdish media in January that Moscow endorses Kurdish unity.
“We always say that the Kurdish position has to be cohesive, united, constructive, and realistic to form the basis for dialogue with the other parties in a serious, responsible manner,” said Bogdanov.
William Roebuck, the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and top US diplomat in northern Syria met with a number of Kurdish party representatives in northeast Syria on April 26.
He told them he is happy with recent progress towards unity, a source told Rudaw on condition of anonymity.
Rudaw English has reached out to ENKS officials for comment.
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