Türkiye on Thursday warned the U.N. against the "persistent threat" posed by the PKK/YPG terrorist organization in Syria.

"The PKK/YPG terrorist organization continues its efforts to advance a separatist and disruptive agenda in northeast Syria and represents the biggest threat to Syria's territorial integrity and political unity," Ahmet Yıldız, Türkiye's permanent representative to the U.N., emphasized at a U.N. Security Council session.

In a resolute declaration, Yıldız reiterated Türkiye's firm position, saying: "The PKK/YPG and its separatist terrorist agenda have no place in Syria's future."

He further condemned the terror group's exploitation of civilian facilities and its oppressive practices against the local population.

Underscoring the urgent need for concerted international efforts to address the multifaceted crisis gripping Syria, Yıldız said, "We cannot lose sight of the precarious situation in Syria in the 14th year of the conflict."

He noted the interconnected deterioration in security, economic and humanitarian dimensions, compounded by recent dangerous escalations in the region.

"Syria remains alarmingly exposed to be a battlefield for other hostilities in the Middle East," he added.

Urging all relevant parties to refrain from actions that could exacerbate tensions, Yıldız also stressed the need to revitalize the political process in line with Security Council Resolution 2254, calling for national reconciliation to address the root causes of the conflict.

He supported the Constitutional Committee as a crucial platform for negotiations between the Bashar Assad regime and the opposition, urging its prompt convening without delays over venue issues.

He also reiterated Türkiye's support for U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen's efforts toward a political solution.

"Given the necessity to coordinate a humanitarian response to a staggering level of needs as well as according to the situation on the ground, it is important to preserve the 'Whole of Syria' approach," he said.

Following Yıldız's speech, Syria's representative at the U.N., Qusay al-Dahhak, criticized Türkiye and the Turkish envoy for referring to the Syrian government as a "regime."

In response, Yıldız reminded that Türkiye was not the reason the conflict started.

Noting the necessity of moving ahead with the political process, he urged the Syrian representative to "focus on the way forward."

The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, recognized as a terrorist group by the U.S., Türkiye and the European Union. However, Washington calls the YPG its biggest ally in driving Daesh, another terrorist group, out of Syria's north and east over the last four years.

US reinforcements for YPG

Similarly, in a move likely to draw Turkish opposition, the U.S. military has dispatched 40 vehicles of military reinforcement to its bases in areas occupied by the PKK/YPG in northeastern Syria.

A convoy of U.S. forces entered Syria's Hasakah province from the al-Waleed border crossing between Iraq and Syria at night, local sources said Thursday.

The convoy, including Bradley-type armored vehicles carrying American soldiers, first reached a military base in the town of Rumaylan in Hassakeh.

Including military vehicles laden with fuel, medical supplies, and ammunition, it then moved to the Tal Baydar base in the province's northwest.

Taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war in 2011, the PKK/YPG has since 2015 occupied several Syrian provinces, including Arab-majority Deir el-Zour, a resource-rich region bordering Iraq, bisected by the Euphrates River and home to dozens of tribal communities.

The terrorist group has forced many locals to migrate, bringing in its militants to change the regional demographic structure, conducting arbitrary arrests, kidnapping children of local tribes for forced recruitment and assassinating tribe leaders to yoke local groups.

It has also seized the region's oil wells – Syria's largest – and smuggles oil to the Syrian regime, despite U.S. sanctions, to generate revenue for its activities.

Since then, U.S. forces in Syria have trained thousands of YPG/PKK terrorists in their military bases in the region under the pretext of combating terrorism.

The U.S. has also provided YPG/PKK terrorists with huge amounts of weapons and combat equipment.

Türkiye, which has troops inside Syria, and Turkish-backed opposition groups in Syria's northwest routinely clash with the PKK/YPG, which seeks to establish a terror corridor along the country's border.

Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out successive ground operations – Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019 – to expel the PKK/YPG and Daesh forces from border areas of northern Syria, as well as Iraq and to enable the peaceful settlement of residents.

Ankara, which has taken some steps for possible normalization with Damascus last year, has also repeatedly called on its NATO ally to cut off support to the PKK/YPG, something heavily weighing on bilateral relations.

Türkiye has been home to some 3.7 million Syrians who fled persecution and brutality in their country when the civil war broke out in 2011 after the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. A decade of fighting has left at least half a million Syrians dead and more than 14 million in need of humanitarian aid.