ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), revealed on Friday that they have established "direct" contact with Turkish authorities and said he is open to meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We have had a ceasefire with Turkey for two and half months. There is a temporary and conditioned tranquillity. We hope that we can turn this into a permanent ceasefire. We have direct relations and direct channels with Turkey and we also have mediators. We hope that these relations will develop," Abdi told Erbil-based Shams TV during an interview that aired on Friday.
Asked if he was willing to meet with Erdogan, Abdi said there was no plan, but “we do not mind.”
Ankara, for years, considered the SDF a security threat. It accused the US-backed force of having ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and carried out several major military campaigns against it since 2016.
When Syrian rebels made their push for Damascus to oust Bashar al-Assad last December, Turkey and the Syrian militia groups it supports intensified their attacks on the SDF in the north, mainly around the strategic Tishreen Dam, but failed to make significant advances. The SDF reportedly agreed to allow Damascus-affiliated forces to be positioned near the dam to create a buffer zone between them and the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
The SDF also signed a March 10 agreement with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a pact that Ankara endorsed in an apparent softening of its tone towards the force. Erdogan has urged Sharaa to speed up the integration of the SDF into Syria's army - as stipulated in the deal.
A seven-member delegation formed in April by the SDF to represent northeast Syria (Rojava) was set to visit Damascus to hold talks with the interim government in the framework of the March 10 agreement. However, despite several attempts by the delegation to schedule the meeting, they were informed by Damascus that government officials were too busy, the SDF-affiliated Ronahi TV reported.
Citing unnamed sources, Ronahi said that government officials told the Rojava delegation they were busy with US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, who arrived in Damascus earlier this week and re-opened his country's embassy 13 years after it was shut.
US-based Al-Monitor reported on Friday that Barrack spoke on the phone with Abdi and reaffirmed Washington's continued support for the SDF in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). The SDF has been the main partner of the US-led global coalition against ISIS on the ground in Syria.
Barrack, who is also US ambassador to Ankara, encouraged Abdi to continue Washington-mediated de-escalation talks with Turkey, according to Al-Monitor, which reported unnamed regional sources saying that either Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan or intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin have offered to meet with Abdi.
