https://arab.news/2jqbk
ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s presence in neighboring Syria is to stop the war-torn country from falling under the sway of terror groups, a Turkish Defense Ministry source said on Thursday after Damascus said a withdrawal of its troops was not a prerequisite for better relations with Ankara.
Turkish forces and Turkiye-backed rebel factions control swaths of northern Syria, and Ankara has launched successive cross-border offensives since 2016, mainly to clear the area of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF, which are backed by the US but which it mistrusts.
Turkiye sees the Kurdish People’s Protection Units or YPG, which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, which it considers a “terrorist” group.
“Turkiye’s presence in Syria prevents the division of Syrian territory and the creation of a terror corridor there,” the ministry source said
“We want to see a democratic and prosperous Syria, not a Syria plagued by instability and terrorist organizations,” the same source added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who had supported rebel efforts to topple Syria’s Bashar Assad — has in recent months sought rapprochement with Damascus, inviting Assad to Turkiye.