Ankara backs SDF integration into Syrian army

Turkey's ruling AK Party welcomes the dissolution of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as an important step towards strengthening Syrian unity, a spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan's party said on Wednesday.

NATO member Turkey has emerged as one of the main allies of neighbouring Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa after he toppled Bashar al-Assad's decades-long rule.

Ankara has vowed to help Damascus rebuild the country and restructure its state institutions and armed forces, and it has provided Damascus with political and diplomatic support. 

"An important threshold was passed in terms of strengthening Syria's internal unity with the dissolution of the SDF," AK Party spokesman Omer Celik wrote on X, adding Ankara supported Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The announcement by SDF commander Mazloum Abdi of the group's dissolution and integration into Syria's armed forces under an agreement with Damascus comes amid peace efforts in Turkey with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group, which Ankara views as linked to the SDF.

In February 2025, jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his group to disarm and disband, and it announced in May 2025 that it would do so. A group of militants symbolically burned their weapons at a ceremony in northern Iraq two months later.

As part of the process, Ankara has repeatedly said the SDF must also dissolve and disband, voicing support for the integration process.

Turkey, which backed rebels looking to oust Assad, had mounted several cross-border military operations against the SDF in northern Syria and still has thousands of troops stationed there. It says they will only be withdrawn once the security threats it faces are eliminated.

The government describes the peace process with the PKK as part of its goal of creating a "terror-free Turkey" and "terror-free region". While Turkey's parliament passed a law this month establishing a legal framework for the disbanding of the PKK, Kurdish politicians have said lasting peace will require broader democratic and legal reforms.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, launched its insurgency in 1984. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, imposed a heavy economic burden on mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey and fuelled ‌decades of political and social division.