A so-called election the PKK terrorist group’s Syrian wing YPG had scheduled to hold on June 11 was postponed to August 2024, Turkish media reported on Thursday. A statement attributed to the YPG says parties that would run in the election sought the postponement.
Turkish security sources said that the country’s determined stand on the opposition to the election bore fruits. Ankara was angered over plans for elections that would be held on May 30 before it was rescheduled to June 11. For Türkiye, it is the first step to establishing a “PKK-run state” in Syria’s north, immediately across the border. Türkiye has highlighted that the election was also a threat to the territorial integrity of Syria, which has been mired in a civil war since 2011. Sources said the elections planned in several regions and towns, from Deir az-Zour and Raqqa to Manbij and Afrin, were postponed due to “intense external pressure.”
Ankara pursued diplomatic talks to prevent the elections and has emphasized that it would endanger border security and regional peace. Encouraged by Türkiye, local tribes and communities in regions where elections were planned to be held staged protests in recent weeks. The Syrian Kurdish National Council (ENKS) was the first to boycott the elections and it was followed by another party. Soon, the boycott grew, accompanied by protests in Syria. The United States, known for its staunch support for the PKK/YPG, also expressed concerns over elections. A U.S. State Department spokesperson has recently highlighted that the conditions were not feasible. "Any elections that occur in Syria should be free, fair, transparent and inclusive, as it's called for in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters last month.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during the Efes-2024 Exercise on May 30, emphasized that the PKK's Syrian extension is intensifying efforts to establish a "terroristan" by oppressing the local population and using various coercive methods, including the expulsion of non-compliant individuals and the use of child soldiers.
He stated that this is part of a broader plan targeting Türkiye and the region, not merely a fight against Daesh, referring to the pretext of U.S. support to YPG. Erdoğan reiterated Türkiye's clear stance against the establishment of a terrorist state near its southern borders and warned that Türkiye would take necessary actions if confronted with similar situations again.
On Thursday, Turkish defense ministry sources said it was unacceptable to have a PKK-organized election in Syria and they should be scrapped altogether.
Locals of Manbij, whose lands were occupied by the YPG eight years ago, are among the opponents of the elections. They believe that this aims to divide the country. The district center, town and villages of Manbij, whose population overwhelmingly consists of Arabs with close to 99%, were occupied by the PKK/YPG with the support of the U.S. in 2016. The U.S., which promised that PKK/YPG members would leave Manbij, did not fulfill its commitments.
Civilians escaping from the methods of forced recruitment, kidnapping of children, and drug addiction and extortion imposed by the terrorist organization under the pretext of "tax" in the occupied territories have migrated to the Turkish border.
Displaced people from Manbij told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the terrorist organization aims to divide Syria with the so-called local election plan.
Abdulraheem Omar, who had to escape from the PKK/YPG occupation and migrate to the Jarablus district, said: "This structure called SDF does not represent the people of Manbij in any way. By entering Manbij, it restricted freedom of expression and the use of rights and implemented its terrorist and separatist agenda by using people affiliated with it."
Pointing out that the terrorist group is trying to organize so-called elections that it claims will be held for the people and Manbij, Omar said: "These elections are just a game for the people of Manbij. They will not be accepted by the people in Manbij and the forcibly displaced people."
"Those who are ostensibly from Manbij will only serve the interests of this extreme terrorist and separatist party," he added, further stating that the YPG "serves foreign agendas aiming to change the demography of the country and corrupts young people by getting them involved in drugs."
The YPG has a structure that "only recruits children and women, corrupts the people and declares war on moral values," he added. "We, as the exiled sons of Manbij, demand the removal of this terrorist party from Manbij from all societies that defend human rights and support peace for our lands and country from which we were forcibly removed. This is the voice of not only me but all the free Syrian people and especially the people of Manbij," he further said.
On the other hand, another local, Shavvak Assaf, who had to migrate from Shuyuk village in the north of Manbij, said: "We have been away from our lands for 10 years. We left the lands where we have lived for approximately 350 years due to the pressure from the terrorist organization PKK. My home and lands are right next to me, but I cannot go there."
"These elections are the scenario of dividing Syria. These regions are Arab regions. This is against all world politics and law," he said. Adding that they live in tents, Assaf added that their lands "have been usurped."
"Nobody is doing anything about it. Our children and women are only clinging to the hope of returning."
Another Manbij local, Abdullatif Hamo, said: "We were expelled from our land and home by this organization about 10 years ago. Although we tried to return many times during these 10 years, they did not accept us because we were of Arab origin."
Saying that YPG members destroyed and burned their houses, Hamo added that they "have no problem with the Kurds; what separates us from each other are the terrorists in Qandil," in reference to areas occupied by PKK terrorists at Mt. Qandil in northern Iraq.
"We heard that the organization will hold so-called elections. This is an attempt to divide Syria. Syria is a single state with all its ethnic origins. The first action of the Qandil terrorists, who have been working on the division of Syria for years, was to hold elections," he said.
"The terrorists coming from Qandil want to establish a state here. They are not even Syrians. Syrian Kurds, Arabs, Druze and Sunnis do not want the country to be divided in any way. They want Syria to remain a single state," he concluded.
