Ankara intensifies strikes against YPG, moves to arrest PYD leader
As Turkey continues its struggle with the Syrian Kurdish militants allied with the United States against the Islamic State in Syria, Ankara has issued a warrant for the arrest of Salih Muslim, the co-chair of the group's political arm.
A Turkish court issued a warrant for the arrest of Salih Muslim, the co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). The Nov. 22 move signals a further hardening of Turkey’s position on the United States’ top ally against the Islamic State in Syria. The court also issued warrants for 47 other people, including senior commanders of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), over their alleged involvement in a car bomb that hit a military convoy in Ankara earlier this year that left 37 people, both military personnel and civilians, dead.
It remained unclear why Muslim, the Syrian Kurds’ de facto foreign minister, was included in the list. For a while, Ankara flirted with the urbane PYD leader in hopes of persuading him to join Turkey’s ill-fated proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And even as Turkey egged on assorted Syrian rebels against the People's Protection Units (YPG) in places like Ras al-Ain, it offered free medical care to hundreds of YPG fighters wounded in battles against IS.
Despite such contradictory signals, Muslim was in Turkey in February last year when YPG forces helped Turkish troops relocate the tomb of Suleiman Shah, which was besieged by IS militants, to the village of Esme near the Turkish border.
The “Esme spirit” became the new rallying cry for the latest round of peace talks between Turkey and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The dialogue broke down last year, partly because of differences over Syria and the PYD.
