SDC Concerned About Possible Afrin Scenario In Northeast Syria Amid Turkish Safe Zone Plan

The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political arm of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is worried that the Afrin-like situation may occur in the northeast of Syria in case Turkey proceeds with its plans to create a safe zone, SDC Executive President Ilham Ahmed told Sputnik

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2019) The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political arm of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is worried that the Afrin-like situation may occur in the northeast of Syria in case Turkey proceeds with its plans to create a safe zone, SDC Executive President Ilham Ahmed told Sputnik.

Washington and Ankara have been at odds over the presence of Kurdish militias in the region, where the Primary component of the SDF - the Kurdish YPG fighters - have been the US' key partners, whereas Turkey regards them as terrorists. Should a safe zone be created under a US-Turkish agreement reached in August, YPG would have to remove its forces and weaponry from the area and up to 2 million Syrian refugees would be settled there. On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara would unilaterally create a safe zone in Syria's north if no progress is made on implementing its deal with Washington.

"Our main concerns are that the scenario of Afrin will be repeated in the east of Euphrates areas," Ahmed said, stressing that they hope that "all countries will be helping and contributing to ending all the occupations of Syria and to end the war in Syria."

Afrin came under the control of the Turkish troops and the opposition Free Syrian Army in March 2018 as a result of their operation against Syrian Kurdish forces.

Ahmed, however, supported the US-Turkish plans to create a safe zone in northern Syria.

"This safe zone, you're referring to the Turkish-American safe zone, it helped to an extent, to calm the Turkish side, despite the fact that our forces do not pose any threat to Turkey," Ahmed continued. "We wanted to prove to the US and other countries our good intent and that we do not pose any threat. After we got American assurances, we withdrew our forces from that area. But the Turkish escalating is still there, and they are threatening to invade at any moment. I would say [that] any attack conducted by Turkey would bear catastrophic consequences on Turkey."

Ahmed also pointed out that up until now, the US position has been to support the SDF, and that the SDC hopes that this relation "would be proved to include the political level and the humanitarian level."

The Syrian government has decried the safe zone deal between Turkey and the United States, calling both countries occupiers, since they operate in Syria without Damascus' authorization.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia was closely following Ankara's statements about the possibility of launching a military operation against Syria's Kurds, and it believes that while Turkey has the right to defend itself, Syria's sovereignty should be respected.