No preconditions in PYD-Damascus dialogue

This column wrote in August 2017, “Turkey’s preoccupation with beating back Syrian Kurdish control in northern Syria could open the door to some type of accommodation with Damascus.” Since then, we have covered Iranian and Russian efforts to forge a deal between the Syrian government and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) that would pass muster with Ankara.

The recent US-Turkey agreement on Manbij has sparked a resumption of talks between Damascus and Syrian Kurdish leaders. Fehim Tastekin writes this week, “Given that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces helped the YPG [People’s Protection Units] fight Turkey in Afrin — an unexpected gesture that ultimately proved futile — it's not a complete surprise that the Kurds would consider turning to the regime under the current circumstances.”

Assad told RT on May 31, “We started opening doors for negotiations [with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), made up primarily of the YPG] because the majority of them are Syrians — and supposedly they like their country; they don’t like being puppets to any foreigners. That’s what we suppose.”