 should remain in place while Islamic State group detainees are transferred to Iraq, arguing that calm would reduce the risk of new instability in the country’s northeast.){kind=link}
Turkey’s foreign minister has said a ceasefire between Syria’s government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) should remain in place while Islamic State group detainees are transferred to Iraq, arguing that calm would reduce the risk of new instability in the country’s northeast.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the comments in a televised interview on NTV on Friday, saying the truce was needed to prevent a security vacuum during the transfer process.
Fidan said Islamic State prisoners were expected to be moved from Syria to Iraq and that fighting at the same time could create risks for northern and eastern Syria, adding that the current ceasefire might need to be extended.
The SDF, a Kurdish-led force backed by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group, controls a network of detention facilities and camps in northeastern Syria that hold thousands of suspected Islamic State fighters and their relatives.
The comments came as Syrian government forces took over the al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa province, one of the facilities holding Islamic State detainees, after Kurdish forces withdrew under a handover arrangement tied to a wider deal.
Al-Aqtan holds about 2,000 detainees. The prison handover was part of a sequence of transfers that also included a facility in Shaddadeh, where about 120 detainees temporarily escaped during an earlier transition.
Iraq has agreed with the US on the transfer of Islamic State detainees, while Damascus also supported the plan.
Turkey views the SDF as linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed group that has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades. Ankara has carried out repeated cross-border operations in northern Syria and Iraq, saying it is targeting PKK militants and affiliates.
The ceasefire and detention facility handovers are unfolding as Syria’s new authorities seek to consolidate control in areas that had been under Kurdish-led rule for years and as regional governments weigh how to handle Islamic State detainees without triggering unrest or prison breaks.