Syrian Kurds say YPG no different than Daesh

PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG) is no different than Daesh terrorists, the head of a Syria-based Kurdish association said.

"We as Syrian Kurds do not make a distinction between the PYD, YPG, there is simply the PKK, they are the same as Daesh terrorists," President of the Independent Syrian Kurds Association Abdulaziz Tammo said.

He noted that the YPG fighters are not Syrian Kurds, as they come from the PKK's camps in Mount Qandil, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Europe and Turkey.

Tammo noted that their association wants the Turkish military to successfully complete its operation and clear YPG terrorists from the area and establish a "peace zone," to allow around a million Syrian Kurds who fled YPG persecution to safely return.

He noted that the people of the region want to return to their homeland and will celebrate it if PKK-affiliated terrorists are removed from the area.

"The PKK terrorists pit Kurds against Kurds, Arabs against Arabs," he said.

Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists affiliated with Daesh and the PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m.

The operation, conducted in line with the country's right to self-defense borne out of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians return in the area east of the Euphrates River controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by YPG terrorists.

The PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union — has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Turkey has long decried the threat from terrorists east of the Euphrates in northern Syria, pledging military action to prevent the formation of a "terrorist corridor" there.

Since 2016, Turkey's Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northwestern Syria have liberated the region from YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists, making it possible for nearly 400,000 Syrians who fled the violence to return home.