In an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat, Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi said that a comprehensive normalization with Damascus would only serve the interests of the Ankara government.

“We must urge our Syrian people to stand against such a deal” between Ankara and Damascus,” Abdi said.

The SDF commander maintained that he rejected the Damascus government’s demand to dismantle his forces.

“The SDF cannot be militarily dismantled into individuals here and there. These forces have ongoing missions to defend Syrian territories and they boast a unique organizational structure,” he said.

Abdi emphasized that decentralization was key to a political solution in Syria.

“Unfortunately, the idea of decentralization has been tarnished given the lack of the voice of reason in the country. We believe that there can be no tackling of Damascus, Daraa, Sweida, Idlib, Latakia and Qamishli’s problems through the central bureaucratic apparatus that caused the current crisis,” he said.

“We believe that decentralization is key to the political solution. It reinforces the will of the people in determining their own fate and way of life. It offers them opportunities of local development in areas that have been marginalized for decades.”

Abdi revealed that Turkey had been carrying out daily attacks against the best military commanders who are leading operations against ISIS cells, political leaderships and civilians, including women and children. He added that Ankara has launched over 70 drone attacks for the last two years. In 2022, Turkey struck 59 targets against civilians, our regions and forces

“We urge the guarantor parties to again assume their responsibilities against the series of daily flagrant violations,” Abdi said.

“The United States has officially announced that it stands against the military operations, but we believe that this stance is not enough to deter the Turkish violations because Ankara has kept up its war approach through other means,” he added.

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