SDF chief says PKK disarmament call 'not related to us in Syria'

The commander of the Kurdish-led forces that control northeastern Syria said that a call by the leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkiye for the group to dissolve does not apply to the group he leads, Reuters reported.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi said he welcomed the historic call by Abdullah Ocalan for the PKK to drop its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state, which he said would have positive consequences in the region.

But Abdi said the long-imprisoned Ocalan’s announcement yesterday applied only to the PKK and was “not related to us in Syria”.

Abdi’s comment signalled Ocalan’s announcement would have no immediate impact on the SDF despite the affiliation of Syria’s main Kurdish groups at the core of the SDF – the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – to the PKK.

Turkiye says the YPG is indistinguishable from the PKK and has, along with Turkish-aligned Syrian armed factions, battled the group.

“If there is peace in Turkiye, that means there is no excuse to keep attacking us here in Syria,” Abdi said.

Abdi’s group established control over Kurdish areas of northern Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and later became a major US partner in the fight against Daesh.

READ: Who is Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish militant leader urging peace with Turkiye?