Turkey’s top diplomat has pledged to assist the Syrian government in efforts to oust Kurdish fighters based in the country’s northeast, regarded as “terrorists” by Ankara, despite a recent spike in tensions after Turkey made good on threats to take military action on its own.

said his country is prepared to work alongside Damascus against Kurdish militants fighting under the banner of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“We will give all kinds of political support to the work of the [Syrian] regime in this regard. It is the most natural right of the regime to clear a terrorist organization in its own territory,” the FM said of the SDF, which is present in Syria’s northeastern extremity. 

However, while Damascus has periodically sparred with Kurdish fighters, it has largely focused its efforts on Sunni militant factions – some linked with al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) – and has even cooperated with the SDF and allied Kurdish units in that fight at times. 

“safe zone” along the Turko-Syrian border, a plan similar to previous Turkish operations in border cities such as Manbij.

“aggression.” 

in Hasakah and elsewhere, including a drone strike which killed a prominent female Kurdish commander near Qamishli last week. The attack prompted a message of condolences from Washington, which has long embedded with and supported the SDF, following a failed years-long effort to arm and train Sunni rebels aiming to overthrow the government in Damascus. 

“unacceptable” and “a good example of the insincerity of the United States in the fight against terrorism.”

However, while Turkey remains fixated on Kurdish groups, it also maintains its own force of paramilitary fighters in Syria which it dubs the ‘Syrian National Army,’ largely made up of remnants of the rebel Free Syrian Army, another formerly US-backed faction. The FM insisted Damascus must distinguish between “terrorists” and the “moderate opposition,” apparently referring to the Turkish-backed units operating in Syria.