Daily Sabah Finds Syria's 'Terrorist Group' Uncooperative, Again
The Daily Sabah , a Turkish state-aligned newspaper, reports that Damascus sees 'no progress' in integrating the YPG. The article quotes Damascus accusing its own Kurdish citizens—who fought ISIS, remember—of using 'media optics' and being a 'terrorist group'. This narrative conveniently ignores the fact that Turkey, the Daily Sabah 's patron, has a long history of conflating Kurdish
self-determination with 'terrorism,' specifically linking the YPG to the PKK, a group Ankara designates as such. This conflation provides cover for Turkey's military operations against Kurds in northern Syria and Iraq, often with quiet US approval. One might wonder how 'integration talks' proceed when one party is simultaneously labeled a 'terrorist organization' by regional powers, and attacked
by its neighbors. It seems the 'failure' of these talks was perhaps not so 'unlikely' after all, but rather a predictable outcome of political posturing and unacknowledged conflict.