Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday that Turkey is ready to step in if Syria breaks up following a rebel overthrow of the regime of President Bashar Assad last month.
“We will not consent to the disintegration of Syria or the disruption of its unitary structure under any guise. If we see a risk in this regard, we will take the necessary steps swiftly,” Erdoğan said at a press conference.
Turkey supports the rebel group that currently leads Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, putting Ankara in a position to influence the country’s new leaders. At the same time, Turkey has long seen Syria’s Kurdish forces as a threat.
Security in the region that the Kurds dominate is overseen by the armed Syrian Democratic Forces, which include the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkey classifies the YPG as a terrorist organization and says the group is tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has been fighting an insurgency in Turkey since the 1980s.
“The only fate awaiting those who choose terror and violence is to be buried in the ground with their weapons. I am saying this openly, no power can prevent this,” Erdoğan said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday that the YPG’s eradication in Syria was “imminent,” and that Ankara would not allow the group to maintain a presence in the country. Turkey previously made several incursions into Syrian territory during the country’s civil war that began in 2011.
Turkey isn’t the only country bordering Syria expressing security concerns. Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on targets in Syria and has seized control of a demilitarized buffer zone established in a 1974 ceasefire. Critics have accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire deal and attempting to extend its control over the border region.
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