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SDF-Damascus tensions could stall Ankara-PKK peace process: MP
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Escalating tensions between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus-aligned forces in northern Syria risk undermining the renewed peace efforts between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish government, a lawmaker from Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party mediating the peace initiative warned on Monday.
In an interview with Rudaw, Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a member of the Turkish parliament representing the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), described the security situation in northern Syria as 'worrying.'
'If an agreement isn't reached in Syria [between Damascus and the SDF],' particularly 'on the status of [northeast Syria] Rojava, I don't think the [peace] process in Turkey will succeed,' he warned, referring to renewed peace efforts between Ankara and the PKK.
The SDF, Rojava's de facto military, has long served as the main ground partner of the US-led Global Coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
On March 10, Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement to integrate all civil and military institutions in Rojava, including the Kurdish-led forces, under the authority of the Syrian state.
Talks on the implementation of the agreement have since been ongoing with differing interpretations of the integration process emerging as a major sticking point. While the SDF seeks to join the Syrian army as a unified bloc, Damascus prefers integrating fighters individually and dispersing them across its regular units.
The DEM Party lawmaker's remarks followed the outbreak of new clashes between the SDF and Syrian government forces in northern Syria in the last two days.
The Kurdish-led forces on Monday accused factions affiliated with Damascus of launching 'an attack on four of our positions' in Syria's northern Aleppo province, holding Damascus 'fully responsible' for the assault.
A day earlier, the SDF and Damascus exchanged blame for a previous attack recorded in northern Syria's Manbij city that reportedly injured four Syrian government troops and three civilians.
Gergerlioglu drew parallels with the 2013-2015 peace process between Ankara and the PKK, which collapsed amid heightened tensions over the Syrian civil war and Turkey's opposition to the rising influence of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) - a group Ankara views as an affiliate of the PKK - in northern Syria.
Domestically, Turkey's newly formed parliamentary commission - tasked with developing the legal and political framework for PKK disarmament - is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.
The 51-member body includes representatives from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), AKP's ultranationalist ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the DEM Party, and several smaller parties.
'The commission's biggest task right now is determining the legal status of PKK fighters after disarmament,' Gergerlioglu said. 'There will be discussions around a new law,' he added, noting that 'some amendments and reversals of existing laws,' might take place.
The commission's formation follows a symbolic disarmament gesture in early July, when 30 PKK fighters ceremonially set their weapons ablaze in the Kurdistan Region - a move widely interpreted as a show of goodwill toward the peace talks with Ankara.
