Ultranationalist leader urges joint Turkish-Syrian military campaign in Rojava

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s ultranationalist leader Devlet Bahceli on Tuesday called on Ankara to coordinate with the Syrian regime for a joint military operation in northeastern Syria (Rojava), just weeks before the local elections in the Kurdish-held enclave.

The Rojava administration is set to hold its local elections on June 11 to determine the mayors of 133 local administration across northeast Syria.

“This attempt at democracy and illegal elections signifies a new phase in the division of Syria … The scriptwriter of the so-called elections announced to be held on June 11 is the USA, and the extras are terrorists,” Bahceli said during a speech to his party bloc in the Turkish parliament.

Bahceli, who is the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and government ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), called on Ankara to reach an agreement with Damascus to prevent the elections in Rojava.

“I propose that Turkey and Syria coordinate military operations to eradicate the separatist terrorist organization at its source and in the swamps where it breeds,” Bahceli said.

Turkey claims that the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.

Ankara has carried out successive operations since 2016 to expel Kurdish fighters from Syria’s north. Its military campaigns are aimed at establishing a “safe zone” - a buffer between the Turkey-Syria border and areas under Kurdish control. 

In October 2023, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country will not refrain from “destroying” the sources of income of the Kurdish forces in northeast Syria. At the time Ankara had intensified its attacks on Rojava.

Days later, the Turkish parliament approved a motion submitted by the country’s presidency, which asked for the extension of the deployment of Turkish troops to Iraq and Syria for another two years.

Turkish and Turkish-backed forces have routinely been accused of committing grave human rights violations, killings, and abductions as well as forcing the displacement of Kurds from northern Syria. 

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated in a February report that Turkey “bears responsibility for the serious abuses and potential war crimes committed by members of its forces and local armed groups it supports in Turkish-occupied territories of northern Syria.”