Kurdish leader says Turkey-Syria rapprochement a ‘forced marriage’

The relations between the Syrian regime and Turkey will not last as they stem from a 'forced marriage' which will inevitably result in 'divorce,' Northern Syria’s PYD (Democratic Union Party) leader Salih Muslim said, in an interview with Asharq Al-awsat.

“The parties that seek to complete this marriage, whether it is Russia or Iran, know and realize that it will not last, and its inevitable fate is divorce,” Muslim told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Turkey and Syria stepped up contacts to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria after Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan met with his Russian and Iranian counterparts last month in Tehran.

Sources said Turkey's intelligence chief Hakan Fidan has been to Damascus multiple times during Septemberand the next step was a meet between the foreign ministers.

However Faisal Mekdad downplayed the contacts between intelligence chiefs.  

"There are no negotiations, there are no contacts, there is nothing at least on the level of foreign ministers," Mekdad said, blaming the Turkish government for its lack of commitment to the peace process under the Astana framework.

“I do not think that this normalization will develop and take the form of friendly relations, as it was before 2011. This is due to the great contradictions and differences between the Syrian state and Turkey,” Muslim explained.

Turkey claims PYD has organic ties with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) which has been waging a war against Turkey since 1984 and refutes any authority by the party or its armed wing the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) in Northern Syria.