By Huseyin Hayatsever
ANKARA (Reuters) – The new administration in Syria should be given a chance to govern following their constructive messages, and Turkey stands ready to provide military training if such help is requested, Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler said.
NATO member Turkey backed the Syrian rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad last weekend, ending a 13-year civil war. Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, two days after its intelligence chief visited the Syrian capital.
“In their first statement, the new administration that toppled Assad announced that it would respect all government institutions, the United Nations and other international organisations,” Guler told reporters in Ankara in comments authorised for publication on Sunday.
“We think that we need to see what the new administration will do and to give them a chance.”
When asked whether Turkey was considering military cooperation with the new Syrian government, Guler said Ankara already had military cooperation and training agreements with many countries.
“(Turkey) is ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it,” he added.
Since 2016, Turkey has mounted four military operations across growing swathes of northern Syria, citing threats to its national security.
Turkey is estimated to maintain a few thousand troops in towns including Afrin, Azez and Jarablus in northwestern Syria and Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad in the northeast.
Ankara may discuss and reevaluate the issue of Turkey’s military presence in Syria with the new Syrian administration “when necessary conditions arise”, Guler said.
ELIMINATING ‘TERRORISTS’
Turkey’s priority remains the elimination of the Kurdish YPG militia, part of a U.S.-backed Syrian opposition group, and it has made this clear to Washington, Guler said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls some of Syria’s largest oil fields, is the main ally in the U.S. coalition against Islamic State militants. It is spearheaded by the YPG, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose militant fighters have battled the Turkish state for 40 years.
“In the new period, the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation in Syria will be eliminated sooner or later,” Guler said.
“Members of the organisation coming from outside Syria will leave Syria. Those who are Syrian will lay down their weapons.”
Guler said Turkey saw no sign of a resurgence of Islamic State in Syria, contrary to the U.S. view.
“Has anyone heard of any attacks by DAESH terrorists in Syria in the last three years? We don’t see or hear anything about DAESH at the moment,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Turkey has in the past told the U.S. that Ankara could deploy three commando brigades in Syria to fight Islamic State, and to run al-Hol, the detention camp for IS families, Guler said, adding that Washington had rejected both offers.
“Instead, they cooperated with the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation under the banner of fighting DAESH. But you can’t fight one terrorist organisation with another terrorist organisation.”
Asked about the future involvement in Syria of Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad which last weekend granted him asylum, Guler said he saw no sign of a complete Russian withdrawal.
Russia, he said, is moving its military assets from different parts of Syria to its two bases in the country – the Hmeimim air base at Latakia and a naval base in Tartous.
“I don’t think the Russians are going to leave (Syria). They’ll do everything they can to stay,” he said.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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