Türkiye urges Syria’s new rulers to take control of Daesh camps
Türkiye on Wednesday called on the new Syrian administration to assume control of camps housing displaced people and detained Daesh terrorists.
“There is no place for either Daesh or PKK/YPG in the future of Syria,” Ahmet Yıldız told a U.N. Security Council meeting, adding that “putting an end to the existence of these terrorist groups is a prerequisite for a peaceful, independent and politically unified Syria.”
He said, “Türkiye appreciates the new administration’s determination to fight against terrorism and is ready to cooperate with Syria in this regard.”
Calling for an end to the foreign exploitation of Syria’s natural resources, particularly its oil and gas, Yıldız said: “These resources should be returned to their rightful owners, the Syrian people, to be utilized in building a prosperous Syria.”
Yıldız emphasized that foreign elements in the terrorist groups should be removed from Syria and “the rest of PKK/YPG elements should lay down all their arms.”
“Terrorist organizations in northeast Syria use Daesh camps and prisons for propaganda to justify their existence,” he said, stressing that, “It is time to transfer the security of these camps and prisons to the new administration.”
He expressed Türkiye’s readiness to support Syria in taking control of the camps and prisons and urged the international community to assist in the repatriation of Daesh detainees.
The issue of Daesh detainees in PKK/YPG-run camps returned to the fore after a coalition of anti-regime forces led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Bashar Assad on Dec. 8.
Foreign powers are at odds over who should run the jails. The former U.S. administration indicated its support for the YPG/PKK continuing to guard them. Former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that a critical part of avoiding a Daesh resurgence was to enable YPG/PKK terrorists to do the job “they’ve been doing … of securing the foreign terrorist fighters.”
Washington’s NATO ally Türkiye accuses the PKK/YPG of exploiting the crisis under Assad’s rule for its prison service to hold Daesh members.
Al-Hol, the largest internment camp in northeastern Syria, hosts more than 43,000 detainees from 47 countries, many of them family members of Daesh members.
The PKK/YPG said they oppose handing the Daesh camps over to the new Syrian administration, citing possible attacks by Daesh to break out comrades.
Daesh took over vast swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, but it lost its grip on the territory after campaigns by U.S.-backed forces in Syria and Iraq and Syrian forces backed by Iran, Russia and various paramilitaries.
A U.S.-led coalition force still raids Daesh cells in Syria. In addition, the U.S., under the pretext of this “fight” against Daesh, supplies military equipment and training to the PKK/YPG, despite protests by Türkiye, which both terrorist groups target.
The U.S. on Wednesday announced it would discontinue its aid to the PKK/YPG-run camps in Syria.
Speaking at the U.N. Security Council, U.S. envoy Dorothy Shea said the U.S. had played a vital role in ensuring the security of Al-Hol and Al-Roj camps “but this aid cannot continue forever.”
The U.S. had shouldered “far too much of this burden for a long time”, according to the envoy who said the camps “cannot remain a direct financial responsibility of the U.S.”
The move also follows President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze most funds disbursed by USAID.
Shea urged counties to “swiftly” repatriate their citizens remaining in the region.
The YPG is the extension of the PKK terrorist organization, which has killed thousands in Türkiye since the 1980s and carved out a self-styled autonomous entity for itself in Syria’s northeast as the civil war raged in Türkiye’s southern neighbor. The group maintains strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria to create a self-styled “Kurdish state.”
The PKK/YPG has sought to exploit the security vacuum to expand its occupation of northern Syria after Assad’s fall, but the Syrian National Army (SNA) of the former opposition has been pushing it back in several key towns.
The YPG, which enjoyed relative immunity from the conflict during the Assad era and occupied much of the oil-producing northeast, mulls its future as the new administration rejected the idea of autonomy for them.
Ankara has repeatedly said it was time for the PKK/YPG to disband and that it would support the new Syrian administration – which is friendly toward Türkiye – in its battle against both Daesh and the YPG while calling for a joint fight against them.
Source » dailysabah.com
