A Syrian opposition figure based in İstanbul has warned that a Syrian Kurdish group's plans to establish autonomy in Kurdish-populated areas of northern Syria is both a threat to Turkey's security and territorial integrity and a development that could pave the way for creation of an Alawite state in Syria Today`s Zaman reported.
Emad ad-Din al-Rashid, head of the political bureau of the opposition group Syria National Movement, said the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is considered in Turkey as the Syrian offshoot of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has entirely aligned itself with President Bashar al-Assad's regime and that it is trying to dominate Kurdish groups that do not want to join its ranks.
The PYD has seized control of the town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkish border from fighters of al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front last month. The group's leader, Saleh Muslim, says they are planning to create a transitional administration to govern the Kurdish region, a move seen by many as a step in the direction of autonomy.
Al-Rashid said Turkey should support "Syrian revolutionaries" against the PYD, warning that Kurdish autonomy could lead Syria to fragmentation. "It would pave the way for the creation of an Alawite state on the Mediterranean coasts," he told Cihan news agency in an interview. "Of course it would also have negative effects on Turkey. Alawites in Turkey might also demand autonomy in such a scenario," he said.
Turkey's Alawites, a minority of about 500,000 people concentrated in the Hatay province on the Syrian border, mostly support the Assad regime in the country's vicious civil war, which is estimated to have caused at least 100,000 deaths.
The PYD is fighting al-Qaeda-linked groups, but some in the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) are also opposed to the group. In a separate interview on Saturday with Cihan, Col. Abdel Jabbar al-Oqaidi, head of the FSA military council in Aleppo, vowed to "eradicate" the PKK, apparently referring to the PYD.
"We cannot remain indifferent any more. Every time we made a deal with the PKK, they stabbed us in the back," he told Cihan from Aleppo. "There will no longer be any mercy for them."