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Germany says Turkey must not wage war on Syria’s Kurdish groups

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Germany on Monday warned Turkey against stepping up military action against Kurdish armed groups in the north of Syria, two weeks after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Agence France-Presse reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄźan said Friday it was time to destroy “terrorist” groups that posed a threat to Syria’s survival, namely the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also referred to as IS) group jihadists and Kurdish fighters.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned on Monday that a Turkish war against the Kurdish groups “must not happen,” saying that in the end this could empower “IS terrorists.”

“That would be a security threat for Syria, but also for Turkey and for us in Europe,” Baerbock told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

Turkey has maintained strong ties with Syria’s new leaders and has continued military operations against Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria.

Turkey views the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as a terrorist group because it is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, a Kurdish group it says is linked to Kurdistan Workers’ Party militants who have fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.

But the US-backed force led the fight against ISIL in Syria in 2019, with the SDF seen by the United States as “crucial” to preventing a jihadist resurgence in the area.

Baerbock also pointed out that “it was the Kurds in particular who pushed back IS,” recalling the “terrible massacres committed by IS terrorists.”

The Syrian city of Kobani has become “a symbol of the courageous fight of the Kurds against IS,” said Baerbock.

She cautioned NATO ally Turkey that the current situation in Syria should “not be used to drive the Kurds out again, to cause renewed violence.”

“We all have a responsibility to ensure that there is no new violence, no new radical forces, but that people can finally live in safety after years of this terror,” she said, adding that “the unity of Syria must be preserved.”

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