“The new Syrian administration does not have thoughts of federation or autonomy on its agenda,” Fidan told Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu Agency in a televised interview.
The Kurdish-controlled northeast and the Druze in the south of Syria have remained adamant about their vision of federalism and decentralization in post-Assad Syria despite the new Islamist authorities in Damascus vehemently rejecting the prospect - at times labeling it a “red line.”
On Tuesday, Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa was received by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, where the Turkish leader affirmed support to Damascus to combat the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Ankara claims that the People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the backbone of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - is the Syrian front for the PKK, a designated terrorist group in the country.
“The Syrian state will either send back all PKK members who have come from various countries or will eliminate them to ensure its own national integrity,” Fidan said.
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi on Sunday told the Associated Press that their vision for Syria is a “decentralized, secular, and civil country based on democracy that preserves the rights of all its components.”
But Abdi also stressed that the Kurds want to remain in Syria as part of a united country.
Many Syrians and foreign powers are worried that HTS-led authority may impose strict Islamic rule and threaten minority groups such as Kurds, Druze, Christians, and Alawites.
