A senior Syrian Kurdish official said a preliminary agreement has been reached with Turkey on reopening the Nusaybin border crossing in southeastern Turkey, in a rare sign of dialogue between Ankara and the region’s de facto Kurdish authorities.
Ilham Ahmed, a top diplomat for the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, told the London-based Al Majalla magazine that the deal covers the reopening of the crossing between Qamishli and the Turkish town of Nusaybin in Mardin province. She said “a consensus or preliminary agreement” had been reached, with further talks expected on the details.
Ahmed linked the move to recent developments involving the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She cited imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s February call for the outlawed group to disband and Turkey’s peace efforts with the militants as having opened limited communication channels with Ankara.
As part of the renewed peace process launched in October 2024, Öcalan urged the PKK to lay down its arms. The militant group, which began its insurgency in 1984, announced in May it would end its armed campaign, saying it had “completed its historic mission.” On July 30 PKK militants publicly burned their weapons in northern Iraq as a symbolic first step.
Despite years of hostility, Turkish-SDF contacts — once unimaginable — are now being quietly normalized through ceasefires, backchannel diplomacy and shared concerns over security and regional stability in the aftermath of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
The reopening of the Nusaybin border crossing, closed since 2012, could revitalize trade and provide an economic boost to Kurdish and Arab-majority regions under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Still, Ankara’s key demand remains unchanged: the full elimination of PKK influence within the Syrian Kurdish administration.
Ahmed also called on Turkey to act as a neutral mediator in ongoing negotiations with Damascus. She argued that Ankara’s stance so far has delayed the political process.
“We know that Turkey has a certain influence over decision-making centers in Damascus,” she said. “But what we mainly hope for is that Turkey will play a mediating role, that it will remain neutral. It cannot remain neutral, but we demand that it should.”
The political process refers to talks between the SDF and the transitional government in Damascus established following the removal of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
Discussions have focused on possible integration of SDF fighters and institutions into the Syrian state, as well as debates over decentralization and limited self-governance in Kurdish-majority areas. While Damascus has resisted Kurdish calls for meaningful autonomy, negotiations have also touched on the transfer of border crossings and civil institutions to state control.
The SDF signed an agreement with Damascus in March to integrate into the Syrian state apparatus.
Meanwhile, the SDF has been rejecting Turkish calls for it to give up their weapons as part of Ankara’s broader peace efforts with the Kurdish militants, saying the situation in Syria requires integration, not the laying down of arms.