Syrian army, Kurds reach deal, US to withdraw last troops

Duvar English

The Syrian army and the Kurdish forces in northern Syria have reached an agreement to counter a Turkish offensive, as the United States announced that it will withdraw its remaining 1,000 troops in the face of Ankara's expanding military operation.

Both developments took place late on Oct. 13, which are major victories for Syrian Bashar al-Assad and its allies Iran and Russia.

According to the Russian-brokered deal reached between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the former is set to deploy along the length of the border with Turkey to help repel the country's military offensive, dubbed "Operation Peace Spring."

The army deployment would support the SDF in countering "this aggression and liberating the areas that the Turkish army and mercenaries had entered", it said, in reference to Turkey-backed Syrian rebels.

It would also allow for the "liberation of other Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army" such as Afrin, the statement said, referring to Turkey's military offensive in the district that was launched last year.

The agreement follows last week's surprise move by the United States to pull a group of its forces from a section of the border, opening the path for Turkey's long-sought offensive.

The leading group in the SDF is the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK is accepted as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

Turkey says its military offensive aims to clear the border of YPG militants and to establish a "safe zone" in order for the return of over one million Syrian refugees.

Ankara also pledged to take responsibility for ISIS militants within the "safe zone."

The SDF, a vital U.S. ally in the campaign against ISIS, has previously called Washington's move "a stab in the back."

"In order to prevent and block this [Turkish] assault agreement has been reached with the Syrian government - whose duty is protect the borders of the country and to protect Syrian sovereignty - for the Syrian army to enter and deploy along the length of the Syrian-Turkish border," the statement said, adding that it invited in the government troops as an "emergency measure."

Under their deal with the Kurds, government forces are poised to move into border areas from the town of Manbij in the west to Derik, 400 kilometers to the east.

Syrian state media reported that troops had already entered Tel Tamer, a town on the strategically important M4 highway that runs east-west around 30 km south of the frontier with Turkey.

Turkish forces said they had seized the highway on Oct. 13. Tel Tamer is 35 kilometers southeast of Ras al Ain, one of the focal points of the Turkish offensive.

Much of the M4 lies on the southern edge of territory where Turkey aims to set up a "safe zone" inside Syria.

State TV later showed residents welcoming Syrian forces into the town of Ain Issa, which lies on another part of the highway, hundreds of kilometers away.

Ain Issa commands the northern approaches to Raqqa, former capital of the ISIS "caliphate", which Kurdish fighters recaptured from the militants two years ago in one of the biggest victories of a U.S.-led campaign.

Kurdish-led forces have established control over swathes of eastern and northern Syria since the country descended into war in 2011, setting up their own governments but always saying their aim was autonomy rather than independence.

The SDF has seldom clashed with the Syrian government during the war.

Speaking about the deal, Aldar Xelil, a Syrian Kurdish politician, said that the deployment is the immediate priority and the two sides would talk politics later.

Xelil told Reuters that the sticking points would require lengthy, direct negotiations.

A range of issues, including ISIS militants in SDF detention, can be hashed out once the Turkish threat subsides, said Xelil.

"We are in contact with the Damascus government to reach common [ground] in the future," he added.

Another Kurdish official, Badran Jia Kurd, echoed those comments, saying: "This is a preliminary military agreement. The political aspects were not discussed, and these will be discussed at later stages."

"After the Americans abandoned the region and gave the green light for the Turkish attack, we were forced to explore another option, which is talks with Damascus and Moscow to find a way out and thwart these Turkish attacks," he said.

Speaking to Reuters about the deal reached on Oct. 13, Ahmed Suleiman, a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party in Syria, said the talks were being held at Russia's Hmeimim airbase in Latakia.

Asked about Suleiman's comments, the head of the SDF media office Mustafa Bali said "no comment."

Earlier on Oct. 13, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the United States was poised to evacuate about 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria after learning that Turkey planned to extend its operation further south and west than originally planned.

Esper called the situation "untenable" for U.S. forces, saying he spoke with Trump late on Oct. 12 and that the president directed the U.S. military to "begin a deliberate withdrawal of forces from northern Syria."

It was unclear what would happen to the several hundred U.S. troops at the American military outpost of Tanf, near Syria's southern border with Iraq and Jordan.

A U.S. diplomatic team that was working on stabilization projects in northeast Syria has left the country, a U.S. official said on Oct. 14, while two U.S. officials told Reuters the bulk of the U.S. pullout could be completed within days.

Another factor behind the decision, Esper indicated in an interview with the CBS program "Face the Nation," was that the SDF aimed to make a deal with Russia and Syria to counter the Turkish offensive. Several hours later, the Kurdish-led administration said it had struck just such an agreement.

Speaking about the deal between Kurds and the Syrian army, Turkish Presidential Adviser Yasin Aktay said that clashes may erupt between the armies of the two neighboring countries.

"Turkey would repel if the Assad regime tries to enter Syria's northeast. Clashes may erupt between two armies," Aktay said.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, said on Oct. 14 it did not want to entertain the possibility of a clash in Syria between Russian and Turkish forces and said Moscow was in regular contact with Ankara, including at a military level.

Asked if Moscow was worried that Russia could get sucked into a conflict with Turkish forces because of its backing for the Syrian army, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that was the last thing it wanted.

“We wouldn’t even like to think about that scenario,” Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Moscow had already warned all sides in the Syrian conflict to avoid any action that could escalate tensions in the area or damage a fragile political process.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said earlier on Oct. 14 that he did not envisage any problems would emerge in Syria's Kobani after the Syrian deployment.

"There are many rumors at the moment. However, especially through the embassy and with the positive approach of Russia in Kobani, it appears there won't be any issues," Erdoğan said when asked about the prospect of confrontation with Russia, adding that Washington's decision to withdraw its last remaining troops from northern Syria was a positive step.

Asked if Erdoğan was coordinating the Turkish offensive with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Peskov said:

"Contacts between the Russian and Turkish authorities are happening. In particular, there was a phone call (between the presidents), and phone conversations between the foreign ministers. There are also communication channels between the (two) militaries." 

The Kremlin has said previously it is sympathetic to Ankara's need to address security concerns in northern Syria. Peskov declined to comment on Oct. 14 when asked if Moscow felt it was time for Turkey to end its operation inside Syria.

Russian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, however, told Voice of America (VOA) that they expect Turkey to start halting its military offensive soon.

The deal-making between Damascus and the Kurds started in earnest nearly a year ago when Trump first broached the idea of withdrawing U.S. troops from Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria, say officials who spoke on the condition they not be identified.

They pointed to one of the announced aims of Erdoğan on launching the offensive, which is to ensure Syria’s territorial integrity, code, the Russian officials say, for a Kurdish statelet not to emerge in northeast Syria. “We have been the oil in the negotiations,” a Russian official told VOA.

Moreover, Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said on Oct. 14 that Turkey did not plan to seize Syrian territory by force and that there was therefore not a serious risk of an open Turkish-Syrian conflict, the RIA news agency reported.

Russia and Turkey have hammered out a fragile truce for the northwest, the only other part of Syria still beyond Assad's grip. Both predicted they would avoid conflict as the area where they face each other is now set to spread across the breadth of the country.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Oct. 14 that Turkey's offensive was "not exactly" compatible with Syria's territorial integrity.

Ushakov, speaking in Riyadh during an official visit to Saudi Arabia by Putin, was asked by reporters if what was happening was consistent with Syria's territorial integrity, something that Russia has repeatedly said it wants respected.

"Not exactly," he said, adding that Russia planned to "do something" without specifying what that might be. 

Valery Gerasimov, the head of Russian's military general staff, on Oct. 14 conducted phone negotiations with U.S. Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Russian news agencies reported.

The call, which news agencies said focused on areas "of mutual interest," came after U.S. announcement regarding full troop withdrawal.

Gerasimov and Turkey's Chief of Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler also held a phone call, during which they discussed recent developments in Syria.

Another phone call was conducted between Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on the same subject.

Erdoğan, meanwhile, said on Oct. 13 the offensive would extend from Kobani in the west to Hasaka in the east and extend some 30 kilometers into Syrian territory, with the town of Ras al Ain now in Turkish control.

Western countries have been voicing their concerns regarding the ISIS militants kept in SDF facilities, saying that the Kurds may not be able to keep thousands of jihadists and their families under captivity.

While reports regarding ISIS militants' escape from SDF facilities have started to circulate, Erdoğan dismissed the reports and said that accounts of escapes by ISIS prisoners were "disinformation" aimed at provoking the West.

Akar on Oct. 14 also dismissed the aforementioned reports, saying that the YPG had emptied a jail holding ISIS prisoners in a part of Syria where Ankara is mounting an offensive, and that the prisoners there had been abducted.

"As you know, there is a prison issue on this Daesh topic. We are determined to show the utmost effort on these prisons. However, there was only one prison in our region, a Daesh prison," Akar said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

"When we went there, we saw that it had been emptied by the YPG and the ISIS militants there had been abducted. We determined this through photographs and film, talked to our counterpart, and will continue to do so," he added.

Akar did not say how many prisoners were believed to have been taken from the jail, nor did he elaborate on who had taken the prisoners and where.

Trump, providing no evidence, tweeted on Oct. 14 that Kurdish forces might be freeing ISIS prisoners deliberately to lure U.S. troops back into the region.

Escaped militants could be "easily recaptured by Turkey or European Nations from where many came, but they should move quickly," Trump said.

"Big sanctions on Turkey coming! Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey? Never ending wars will end!" he added.

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said that he had spoken with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about Turkey's offensive and that she supported bipartisan sanctions against Ankara.

Graham is usually a vocal supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, but he has repeatedly publicly condemned Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria.

"Just spoke with Speaker Pelosi regarding congressional action on Turkey's incursion of Syria," Graham tweeted. "Speaker supports bipartisan sanctions against Turkey's outrages in Syria. She also believes we should show support for Kurdish allies and is concerned about the reemergence of ISIS."

Later on the same day, Turkish media broadcast footage of what it said was the prison emptied by the YPG in central Tel Abyad, along the Turkish border. The footage showed Turkish soldiers roaming through an empty building with jail cells built inside.

Turkey also said Turkish and allied Syrian rebel forces, which are dubbed the Syrian National Army, seized a highway some 30-35 kilometers into Syrian territory, which would sever a major artery linking the Kurdish-run regions of war-torn Syria's north.

Akar on Oct. 14 also said that the army took control of Tel Abyad and Ras al Ain, as Turkish commandos started to proceed towards Manbij.

Earlier, Erdoğan signaled that Turkey aims to drive the YPG from the northern Syrian town of Manbij.

Speaking ahead of a visit to Azerbaijan, Erdoğan said Turkey would implement its plans for Manbij and settle Arabs there, after an agreement with Washington last year for YPG fighters to leave the town fell through.

"Our agreement with the United States was for the terrorist organizations to clear Manbij in 90 days," he said, referring to the YPG. "However, a year has passed and Manbij has not been cleared," Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul.

"We, as Turkey, will not go into Manbij when it's emptied. The real owners of that area, the Arabs, and the tribes who are the true owners of that will go there. Our approach on this is for them to be settled there and to provide their security," he added.

Later in the day, Erdoğan gave a defiant speech in Baku, saying that Turkey won't back down from its offensive "no matter what anyone says."

"We are determined to continue the operation until the end, without paying attention to threats. We will absolutely finish the job we started. Our battle will continue until ultimate victory is achieved," he said.

He also slammed the European Union and Arab League for their criticism of Turkey's operation and asked for international funds for Ankara's "safe zone" plans in northeast Syria.

"When did the terrorist groups become defendable against a NATO member? Did terrorist groups join NATO without my knowledge?" he said.

Erdoğan's remarks were in response to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's earlier statements regarding the offensive.

Stoltenberg said that the military alliance should not lose its unity in the fight against ISIS.

"We must not put in jeopardy the gains we have made against our common enemy," Stoltenberg said at a session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in London, in answer to questions from French and Italian delegates who had challenged what they described as his conciliatory approach to Turkey.

"Turkey is important for NATO ... We risk undermining the unity we need in the fight against Daesh," he added, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Separately, Turkish Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül said on Oct. 14 that the military offensive is being carried out in line with international law and that civilians are not harmed.

Elsewhere, Akar paid visits to main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and İYİ (Good) Party on Oct. 14 in order to brief them about the offensive's progress.

"We are way ahead of what we had planned," Akar said.

Earlier, an investigation was launched into CHP deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu over his comments about Operation Peace Spring.

"The government needs to know that this is an unjust war against the Kurds," Tanrıkulu tweeted on Oct. 12, which prompted Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office to launch an investigation into the deputy on Oct. 14 over "insulting the Turkish Republic."