US ambassador to Türkiye rejects separate Kurdish state in Syria

During a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center in New York on July 11, Tom Barrack, the US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, clearly rejected the possibility of an independent Kurdish state in Syria and reiterated Washington’s stance on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Barrack described the SDF as “YPG, a derivative of the PKK,” emphasising that the US does not support the creation of a separate SDF state or a “free Kurdistan” within Syria. “SDF is YPG. YPG is a derivative of PKK,” he said, adding that the YPG was a spin-off of the PKK, which the US allied with in the fight against ISIS, Caliber.az reports via Turkish media.

Addressing expectations from the SDF due to their partnership with the US, Barrack noted, “There’s a big sentiment that, because they were our partners, we owe them. The question is, what do we owe them? We don’t owe them the ability to have their own independent government within a government.”

He further clarified, “There’s not an indication that there’s going to be a free Kurdistan. There’s not an indication that there’s going to be a separate SDF state. There’s no indication on our part that there’s going to be a separate Alawite state or a separate Jewish state. There’s Syria.”

Barrack also highlighted the Syrian government’s rejection of federalism and dismissed attempts to divide the country along ethnic or sectarian lines as unworkable. “You can’t have a separate Druze force dressed like Druze, separate Alawite force dressed like Alawites, separate Kurd force dressed like Kurds, and on and on. There’s going to be one entity,” he said.

Regarding the US role in Syria, Barrack emphasised that while Washington encourages dialogue and mediation among Syrian parties, it does not intend to stay in the country indefinitely. “We’ll bring you together, we’ll arbitrate, we’ll mediate, we’ll help, but we’re not going to stick around,” he stated. “If you guys don’t agree, don’t agree, but we’re not going to be here forever as the babysitter.”

The Turkish government has long asserted that the SDF is led by the YPG, which it considers a terrorist group linked to the PKK, a designation shared by both Türkiye and the US. Despite this, successive US administrations—including those of Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden—have regarded the SDF as their primary ally in combating ISIS (Daesh) in Syria.