The Syrian Kurdish PYD party on Sunday rejected
Turkish demands that allied militia withdraw from positions near the border
that are being shelled by Turkish army, and warned that Syrians would resist
any Turkish intervention in the country.
Saleh Muslim, the co-chair of the PYD, told Reuters
Turkey had no right to intervene in Syria's internal affairs, adding that an
air base shelled by the Turkish army on Saturday had been in the hands of the
al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front until forces allied to the PYD captured it last
week.
"Do they want the Nusra Front to stay there, or
for the regime to come and occupy it?" Muslim said by telephone.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday
demanded the PYD withdraw from areas north of Aleppo he said had been captured
by the Kurdish group. Asked if he rejected that demand, Muslim said: "Of
course".
Saleh said the air base was captured by the
PYD-allied Syria Democratic Forces, which includes Arabs and Turkmen alongside
the powerful Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
He added that if Turkey intervened in Syria they
would find "the entire Syrian people confronting them".
Turkey on Saturday demanded the YPG militia withdraw
from areas that it had captured in the northern Aleppo region in recent days
from insurgents in Syria, including the Menagh air base. The Turkish shelling
has targeted those areas.
Turkey has been alarmed by the expansion of Kurdish
sway in northern Syria since the start of the conflict in 2011. The YPG
controls nearly all of Syria's northern frontier with Turkey, and has been a
close ally of the United States in the campaign against Islamic State in Syria.
Ankara views the group as an extension of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade-old insurgency
for autonomy in southeast Turkey.
- Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment