The Japan Times - Turkey threatens military operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters

"We will do what's necessary" if the People's Protection Units (YPG) fail to meet Ankara's demands, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told CNNTurk television. Asked what that might entail, he said: "Military operation".

Assad's overthrow by Islamist-led rebels last month raised the prospect of Turkey intervening directly in the country against Kurdish forces accused by Ankara of links to armed separatists.

Ankara accuses the YPG -- seen by the West as essential in the fight against Islamic State jihadists -- of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey.

The PKK has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state and is listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies.

"Those international fighters who came from Turkey, Iran and Iraq must leave Syria immediately. We see neither any preparation nor any intention in this direction right now and we are waiting," Fidan said.

"The ultimatum we gave them (the YPG) through the Americans is obvious," he added.

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations in Syria to push Kurdish forces away from its border.

The foreign minister also said Turkey had the capability to take over the management of prisons and detention camps holding IS jihadists in Syria if the new leadership was unable to do so.

"Our president gave the instruction that if others cannot do it, Turkey will keep control (of the camps) with its own soldiers. As Turkey, we are ready for this," Fidan said.

-'Bloodless transition'-

New Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose HTS group has long had ties with Turkey, told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.

Fidan, who met with Sharaa in Damascus last month, said Ankara expected the new leadership to address the YPG issue.

Asked if they were taking the necessary steps: Fidan said: "We need to give it some time," adding talks between Damascus and the YPG were going on.

He said Syria's new rulers were capable of fighting the YPG, which he accused of buying time.

"The administration in Damascus is not made of those who are scared of war. They seized Damascus by fighting," Fidan said.

Referring to Kurdish fighters in Syria, he said: "If you do not want any military operation in the region, neither by us nor by the new administration in Syria, the conditions for this are clear."

"The terrorist fighters coming from international countries must leave Syria, the PKK leadership must leave the country. The remaining cadres must lay down their weapons and join the new system, this is for a bloodless and problem-free transition."

Asked if Turkey would still intervene in Syria despite the United States' support for the YPG, Fidan said: "We did it in the past in Afrin, in Ras al-Ayn and in Tal Abyad," referring to locations in northern Syria that Turkey has targeted.

He said Turkey would not hesitate to do it again.

"This is what our national security requires. We don't have any other option."

More than 100 combatants have died over the past few days in northern Syria in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their armed conflict with Kurdish forces at the same time Islamist-led rebels launched their November 27 offensive that ousted Assad just 11 days later.

M.Yamazaki--JT