PYD leader: Turkey continues to support al-Nusra Front again

[Aslan]

Turkey continues to provide support for al-Qaeda-linked groups fighting Kurds in Syria's north despite statements by Turkish officials that such groups are a threat to Turkey's security as well, the leader of the most powerful Syrian Kurdish group has said.
Saleh Muslim, who heads the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said in remarks published on Sunday that witnesses on both sides of the border have confirmed that there was a transfer of weapons and ammunition from Turkey to Syria through the Karkamış border gate in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on the night of Aug. 2. He said the weapons were then transported to Arab villages near the Kurdish-populated town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic) apparently in preparation for attacks on Kobani.

“Kobani is next. It is impossible to understand how Turkey lets this happen. If the al-Nusra Front is the enemy, then this should be prevented,” Muslim told Taraf daily in an interview. The al-Nusra Front is one of the al-Qaeda-linked groups involved in clashes with the Syrian Kurds in Kurdish-populated towns near the Turkish border. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), another al-Qaeda affiliate, is also fighting the Kurds.

Muslim paid a surprise visit to Turkey late last month and had talks with officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Turkish Intelligence Agency (MİT). He said Turkish officials promised measures to prevent the passage of al-Qaeda militants into Syrian territory through Turkey as well as to pressure the anti-regime Free Syrian Army (FSA) to isolate al-Qaeda-linked groups.

Asked if these promises were broken, Muslim said he keeps his faith that the Turkish government is well intentioned and raised the possibility of the ongoing support could be the work of some “deep forces” acting without the government's consent. “I don't know [if this is the work of forces other than the Turkish government]. But it is certain that al-Nusra continues to get weapons via the Turkish border,” he said.

A group of about 70 commanders of the FSA met in Gaziantep as Muslim was visiting Turkey for talks. Col. Abdel Jabbar al-Oqaidi, head of the FSA military council in Aleppo who was among the participants of the meeting, accused the PYD of fighting alongside the regime forces. “They [the PYD] are the Shabiha of the regime. Hopefully, we will triumph over them,” the colonel said in remarks to the media during the meeting. The Shabiha is known as a shadowy militia group used by the Syrian regime against opposition forces.

“When I was meeting with officials in İstanbul, FSA and al-Nusra members were meeting at a hotel in Gaziantep and making plans to destroy Kurds. Is it possible that the state did not know about it?” he asked.

Muslim also complained about randomly fired bullets by the Turkish army which he said landed in civilian settlements in the Kurdish towns on the Syrian side of the border.

The Turkish military regularly returns fire from Syria. Four Turkish nationals have been killed by stray bullets fired from Syria during the recent clashes between the PYD and al-Qaeda-linked groups on the Syrian side of the border. Usually there is no report on possible casualties as a result of these retaliatory attacks.

“This is a strange situation,” Muslim said of the retaliatory fire from Turkey. He said the Turkish army fired back randomly and that residential areas were hit. He added that the army was not deliberately targeting civilians. "Thank God, there are no casualties,” he said.

Muslim also rejected categorization by some Turkish officials of his talks in İstanbul as a “warning” to the PYD, saying the talks were friendly and based on mutual respect.

The PYD presence in northern Syria is a source of concern in Turkey because of the group's links with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Muslim said in the interview that he has never joined the PKK, although he has been a sympathizer and called PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan “a visionary who could lead all peoples of the Middle East.”