By Ece Toksabay
ANKARA, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Turkey sees an integration deal between Syria’s government and Kurdish forces there as an “historic turning point”, ahead of which the Turkish intelligence agency played an intensive role to ensure restraint by parties involved, Turkish security sources said on Monday.
Turkey, a strong supporter of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, sees the deal as critical to restoring state authority across Syria and to its own goal of eliminating terrorism at home, including advancing its long-running efforts toward securing peace with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the sources said.
Ankara is the strongest foreign backer of the administration in neighbouring Damascus and had threatened its own military operation against the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north if the group did not agree to come under central government control.
On Sunday, Syria and the SDF struck a wide-ranging deal to integrate the Kurdish civilian and military authorities, ending days of fighting in which Syrian troops captured territory including key oil fields.
The Turkish security sources said the fight against Islamic State in Syria would continue uninterrupted despite the agreement.
Turkey’s intelligence agency MIT had been in dialogue with the United States – which mediated the Sunday agreement – and the Syrian government ahead of the deal, the sources said. MIT also maintained intensive contacts to ensure restraint among parties, including protecting civilians and critical infrastructure, in Syria in the run-up to the deal, they added.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
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