A burst of fighting in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo is spilling across the border into Turkey’s politics, hardening rhetoric and raising new questions about whether a peace track with Kurdish militants can survive a regional crisis that Ankara frames as a national security threat.
The latest flare-up began January 6 in Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods, where Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fought for days before Kurdish fighters pulled out under an agreement that put the districts under government control. At least 23 people were killed and more than 150,000 people were displaced, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday the conflict appeared to expand. Syrian state media published an army statement declaring a broad area east of Aleppo a “closed military zone” and ordering armed groups there to withdraw to the east bank of the Euphrates River. The Syrian military and SDF traded accusations of drone strikes and shelling in the area.
The escalation matters in Turkey because the SDF is dominated by a Kurdish militia called the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara says is tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the group that fought the Turkish state for decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkey’s government has publicly backed Syria’s interim authorities as they try to extend control over the country. Turkish officials have described the Aleppo operation as part of a fight against terrorism and have pressed the SDF to integrate into state structures under a March agreement between Damascus and the Kurdish-led force.
Inside Turkey the Aleppo violence has turned into a new test of a delicate peace initiative that began after jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan urged the group to lay down its arms and disband in February 2025 as a step toward peace.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), urged caution against provocations that could damage Turkish-Arab-Kurdish unity and said the Syrian Kurdish militia’s “legitimate interlocutor” should be the Syrian state, while branding the Aleppo clashes a “historic opportunity” to integrate the SDF into Syrian state.
His key ally, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, however, set a different tone. He targeted SDF commander Mazloum Abdi by name, calling him “pro-Zionist” and “a puppet of Israel.”
Bahçeli insisted that Öcalan’s call includes Kurdish armed groups in Syria, while slamming calls for negotiations from Syrian Kurds and asserting that there can be no compromise with what he called the “terrorist SDF.”
On the other side, Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), has accused Ankara of fueling conflict in Syria and endangering any chance of lasting peace at home. Party leader Tuncer Bakırhan has argued that attacks on Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo risk poisoning public trust in Turkey’s peace messaging.
The DEM Party framed the Aleppo clashes as Damascus’s attack on Kurds and compared it to Iraq’s 1988 attack on Halabja on the orders of Saddam Hussein that killed thousands of Kurdish civilians.
A statement from the Kurdistan Communities Union, an umbrella group linked to the PKK, made the same point in sharper terms. It said the attacks on Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo “call into question” the ceasefire between the movement and Turkey and the peace efforts, warning that the violence could be used to justify a tougher line at home.
Turkey’s ruling party has presented the Aleppo violence as a deliberate attempt by Kurdish fighters to derail Turkey’s push for what it calls a “terrorism-free” country. AKP spokesman Ömer Çelik said the SDF attacks and the subsequent operation in Aleppo were aimed at sabotaging that goal.
The competing narratives are unfolding as Syrians try to recover from the fighting inside Aleppo. Hundreds of displaced residents have begun returning to neighborhoods such as Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zeid after the government regained control. Security forces are patrolling the area as crews are working to deactivate explosives and clear debris, even as tensions remained high and reinforcements moved east of the city.
In northeastern Syria the Aleppo operation has fueled anger and fear among Kurds who doubt Damascus will protect their rights. Thousands of people protested in Qamishli on Tuesday, with demonstrators linking Damascus and Ankara to repression and voicing doubts about Syria’s new leadership.
For Turkey the Aleppo fighting lands at a moment when both Kurdish militants and Ankara are trying to shape public expectations about what lasting peace would mean and what it would not mean. Ankara has insisted it will not tolerate an armed Kurdish foothold along its border and has long carried out cross-border operations in northern Syria. At the same time the government has signaled support for steps that reduce violence at home, provided that Kurdish militants lay down their arms.
The risk now is that battlefield developments in Syria will drive political decision-making in Turkey. Kurdish-linked actors argue that the Aleppo operation shows that promises of dialogue can be paired with force, making it harder to sell compromise to Kurdish communities. Nationalists argue the opposite — that any sign of flexibility invites pressure and that Syria’s Kurdish forces must be treated as part of the same threat picture.