Turkey backtracking on 'red lines' for Syria's Kurds
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly agreed to accept Kurdish participation at the Syria congress in Sochi, as long as those Kurds do not belong to the Democratic Union Party.
Since the outbreak of war in Syria, Turkey’s predicaments have forced it to turn a number of its red lines to yellow lines. Now, Turkey seems to be taking a step back on the Kurdish issue.
A sensitive topic these days is whether the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) — the prime mover behind the push for “democratic autonomy” in northern Syria — will be invited to the Syrian National Dialogue Congress that Russia is organizing in Sochi. In return for cooperating with Moscow and Tehran in the Astana process, Ankara wants to get dividends on the Kurdish issue. Ankara's two critical demands are known: a green light for a military move on Afrin to uproot affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and the PYD’s exclusion from the Sochi congress.
On Dec. 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the seventh time this year, flying to Ankara in a whirlwind regional tour, which also included a visit to Syria's Khmeimim air base, where he ordered the Russian military to begin its withdrawal from the country. According to Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service, Erdogan reiterated his objections to PYD attendance in Sochi. Putin responded with a proposal for the participation of non-PYD Kurds. Erdogan reportedly raised no objections to this formula. “Diplomatic sources who closely followed the meeting say Erdogan and Putin agreed that the Syrian National Dialogue Congress can convene with the participation of Kurds other than the PYD,” according to the report.
The two leaders shared few details about their talks in remarks to the press after the meeting. Erdogan spoke of discussions on “additional steps” in Syria. “We will contribute to the Geneva process with the aim of finding a permanent solution in Syria,” he said.
