Turkey Urges Kurdish in Syria to Join Opposition
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Turkey urged the main Kurdish group in northern Syria to join the Syrian opposition, local Daily Hurriyet reported on Sunday.
Ankara urged Kurdish leader of the Democratic Union Party, Saleh Muslim, not to cooperate with the Syrian government, but to be part of the Free Syrian Army, the report said.
The remarks were made at a meeting between Muslim and Turkish intelligence officials in the capital Ankara over the clashes between Syrian Kurds and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Kurdish populated Kobane region of Syria.
Before Muslim's visit to Ankara, co-chair of Turkey's pro- Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas, asked last week the Turkish government to provide support to Syrian Kurds in their fight against the ISIL, as the group has been advancing in Kurdish villages in Kobane near the Turkish border.
In his previous visits to Turkey, Muslim had not agreed with the Turkish authorities on the cooperation, as Ankara has deeply been concerned over the establishment of a de-facto Kurdish autonomous region in northern Syria, and urged Kurds in Syria not to unilaterally declare autonomy.