Turkiye celebrates Syrian Govt’s Kurdish victory
Turkiye is celebrating the latest developments in Syria, where the new Government has effectively defeated a major Kurdish-led force with an abrupt offensive. Ankara has long viewed armed groups led by Kurds - an ethnic minority with large populations in eastern Turkiye, Iraq and northern Syria - as a threat as Turkiye as fought to quell the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, whose decades-long insurgency cost tens of thousands of lives.
Coming just a few months after a Kurdish militant group in Turkiye agreed to lay down its arms, the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces is a major step toward Ankara’s regional goals. In just two weeks, Syria’s Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces - once the United States’ main partner against the Islamic State group in Syria - lost most of its territory in northern Syria to an offensive launched by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
The SDF was then forced to accept a deal under which it would dissolve and merge its tens of thousands with Syrian Government’s military as individuals rather than in a bloc, after the failure of months-long negotiations on the integration of its troops into the new Syrian army. The SDF was established a decade ago with US support as a coalition of militias to fight IS. Its backbone was made up of a Syrian Kurdish armed group affiliated with the PKK.
Al-Sharaa took power after the ouster of the Assad Government in December 2024, and has been consolidating authority while dealing with challenges from the remnants of pro-Assad groups as well as some former opposition groups that want to maintain autonomy from the state. In particular, minority religious and ethnic groups have viewed the Sunni Arab-led Government with suspicion.
Turkiye has been a key backer of al-Sharaa, providing political and military support to strengthen his Government. Washington declined to intervene on behalf of the Kurdish group, shifting its support to the nascent Government and focusing on brokering a ceasefire. “The fact that the PKK-linked SDF has essentially lost its influence and territorial hold is certainly a very favourable outcome for Turkiye,” said Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based EDAM research centre. “The extension of the capabilities of the new Syrian Government is also another favourable outcome.” Ulgen cautioned, however, that the Syrian Government’s recent gains could prove temporary if al-Sharaa fails to stabilise the northeast of the country.
