Syria offensive leaves Turkey's Kurds on edge
Turkey's Kurds are hoping that Ankara's bid to end the decades-long PKK conflict won't be hurt by Damascus' lightning offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria that was backed by Turkey.
A close ally of the new post Bashar al-Assad Syrian leadership, Ankara has been engaged in dialogue with the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan whose fighters fought a four-decade insurgency that cost some 50,000 lives.
But that process has been largely stalled amid a stand-off between the Kurdish-led SDF that controls swathes of northeastern Syria and Damascus which wants the force integrated into the central state.
That standoff, which triggered weeks of clashes, came to a head over the weekend when Syrian troops made rapid advances in Kurdish-controlled areas, with President Ahmed al-Sharaa announcing a ceasefire deal to enforce his integration plans late Sunday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the ceasefire and the integration agreement as "a very important achievement", commending the Syrian army for its "careful" offensive which Ankara has billed as a justified "fight against terrorism."
But the violence, which began earlier this month, has unsettled Turkey's Kurds, who account for a fifth of its 86 million population, prompting a string of protests.
In Diyarbakir, the main city in the Kurdish-majority southeast, clashes broke out on Monday afternoon as police tried to break up a demonstration of at least 500 people who gathered despite heavy snowfall, an AFP correspondent said.
They used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the protest and made at least 20 arrests, he said.
And during the evening, Istanbul police broke up protests outside the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish DEM, Turkey's third largest party, arresting 10 people including a French journalist, the party said.
Raphael Boukandoura, who works for various publications including Courrier International and Ouest France, was arrested while covering the demo, with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calling for for his "immediate release".
Turkey has long been hostile to the US-backed SDF, seeing it as an extension of the PKK and a major threat along the 900-kilometre (550-mile) border it shares with Syria.
- 'Sabotage' -
For the Kurds, the offensive was a tough blow to their hopes of preserving their autonomous administration.
Several days of fierce fighting earlier this month pushed SDF forces out of Aleppo, and over the weekend, government troops also took Raqa, a city SDF had held since recapturing it from Islamic State militants nearly a decade ago.
Turkey's support sparked an angry response, with Ocalan warning the violence was "an attempt to sabotage" the ongoing peace process, in a message sent via DEM.
DEM leaders -- which have spent over a year shuttling between Ankara and Ocalan -- also accused the government of "pure hypocrisy".
"You cannot treat those you call 'citizens' on this side of the border as 'enemies' on the other," the party said in a statement.
"You cannot be constructive in Ankara and destructive in Syria."
Speaking to AFP, one of DEM's Diyarbakir leaders Abbas Sahin said the operation was a threat to the peace process which had been "severely tested" but "must continue".
Bayram Bozyel, head of Diyarbakir-based Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK) said Turkey's support for actions against Kurds in Syria was "causing unease among Kurds in Turkey"
“We don't know how the PKK will react, (Ankara's) policy has sparked a deep sense of distrust among Kurds," he said.
Despite everything, Bozyel believes Turkey "will continue the (peace) process and the PKK disarmament" because it had no other choice.
"Otherwise the PKK will pose an even greater threat to Turkey."
Last year, in response to a call by Ocalan, the PKK publicly ended its armed struggle against Turkey, saying it wanted to embrace democratic means to defend Kurdish rights.
But six weeks ago, a senior PKK leaders told AFP the group would take no further steps without Turkey taking steps to reciprocate.
