シリアのクルド戦闘員標的に軍事作戦警告　トルコ外相

【イスタンブールＡＦＰ＝時事】トルコのハカン・フィダン外相は７日、シリアのバッシャール・アサド大統領失脚後、「無血」の政権移行に向けトルコが求める条件が受け入れられない場合、クルド人勢力に対する軍事作戦を開始する可能性があると警告した。（写真は、トルコのハカン・フィダン外相）
　フィダン氏はＣＮＮトルコに対し、クルド人民兵組織「クルド人民防衛部隊（ＹＰＧ）」がトルコ側の要求を受け入れなければ、「必要なことを行う」と語った。具体的に何を指すか問われると、「軍事作戦」だと答えた。
　ＹＰＧは、過激派組織「イスラム国」（ＩＳ）掃討作戦において西側諸国から重用されているが、トルコとしては、自国内で非合法化されているクルド労働者党（ＰＫＫ）とつながりがあるとみている。
　ＰＫＫはトルコ政府とは数十年にわたり敵対関係にあり、同国およびその西側同盟国からはテロ組織と認定されている。
　フィダン氏は、「外国から来たテロリスト戦闘員はシリアを去り、ＰＫＫ指導部も去らなければならない。残りの幹部は武器を置き、新体制に参加するべきだ。これは無血で問題のない移行のためだ」と述べた。
　米国がＹＰＧを支援しているにもかかわらず、トルコはシリアに介入するかとの質問には、「過去にアフリン、ラスアルアイン、タルアビヤドで行ったことがある」と語り、シリア北部での軍事作戦に言及。「それはわが国の国家安全保障が要求することだ。他に選択肢はない」とし、新たな軍事作戦をちゅうちょしない考えを強調した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/01/08-16:51）

Turkey threatened Tuesday to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara's conditions for a bloodless transition after the fall of strongman president Bashar al-Assad.
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.