Turkey says it expects Syrian Kurdish militia to fulfil Damascus deal

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ANTALYA, Turkey (Reuters) – Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday that Turkey expects the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to fulfil a deal the group agreed with the Syrian government, under which it is to integrate into Syria’s armed forces.

Turkey regards the YPG as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has fought the Turkish state for four decades and which announced on Monday that it had decided to disarm and disband.

“We see that there has been no step taken by the YPG so far. We expect these steps to be put into practice,” Fidan told a press conference at an informal NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in southern Turkey’s Antalya province.

“In order for stability to be achieved in Syria, there must be a comprehensive government, a single legitimate armed force,” he added.

The YPG spearheads the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces which control much of Syria’s oil-rich northeast and which signed a deal with Damascus in March to join Syria’s new state institutions.

The March deal also called for SDF-controlled border crossings, an airport and oil and gas fields in eastern Syria to become part of the Damascus administration. Implementation is due by the end of the year, but it was unclear how the SDF’s military operation would be integrated.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)