ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s pro-Kurdish political party suggested on Tuesday that violence against Kurdish groups in Syria risks undermining fragile reconciliation efforts with Kurdish militants, who have fought a decadeslong insurgency inside Turkey.
The warning from Tulay Hatimogullari, co-chair of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, followed new clashes in Syria on Monday, which appeared to have shattered a ceasefire and integration deal that was reached only a day earlier between interim Syrian President Ahmad al‑Sharaa and the Kurdish‑led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
“At a time when we are talking about internal peace and calm, can there really be peace if Kurds are being massacred in Syria and the feelings of Kurds in Turkey are ignored?” she said during a party meeting held in Nusaybin, a town near the border from Syria’s mainly Kurdish town of Qamishli.
The deal, signed on Sunday, had called for the SDF to give up most of the territory in northeastern Syria that it previously controled and for the dismantling of its military structures, with its fighters to be integrated into Syria’s national army and security forces on a case-by-case basis. Despite the agreement, renewed fighting broke out on Monday, prompting the SDF to call for resistance.
Dozens of DEM party supporters marched in Nusaybin denouncing what they described as a “massacre” against Kurds in Syria, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support to the Syrian government.
A group of protesters later tried to cross into Syria and lowered a Turkish flag from a military observation post, sparking clashes with police and condemnation from Turkish officials who called the act a provocation intended to sabotage the ongoing peace initiative.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc announced on X that authorities have launched investigations into 356 people involved in the incident, with at least 35 arrested, 45 released with judicial restrictions, and 77 still held in custody.
Turkish officials had hailed Sunday’s deal — struck after days of heavy clashes in Syria — as a historic turning point. Feti Yıldız, a member of parliament serving on a committee drafting proposals to advance peace efforts launched last year with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the PKK, said that the accord could carry positive repercussions for Turkey’s own reconciliation process.
Turkey views the SDF as inseparable from the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency inside Turkey for four decades.
In May, the PKK announced that it would disarm and disband as part of the new peace effort with Turkey, following a call by its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
The PKK staged a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, and later announced that it was withdrawing its remaining fighters from Turkey to Iraq.
The SDF, however, rejected pressure to follow suit, insisting that Ocalan’s directive applied only to the PKK and not to militants in Syria.
In a televised address on Monday, Erdogan warned the SDF against stalling or obstructing the agreement that was reached with Syria’s government.
“Procrastination, resistance, and playing for time by hiding behind various excuses will benefit no one,” Erdogan said. “The era of terrorism in our region has come to an end. The requirements of the ceasefire and full integration agreement must be fulfilled without delay, and no one should miscalculate again.”
Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK collapsed — most recently in 2015 — leaving deep skepticism about whether the latest process can succeed.
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