YPG postpones elections in Syria after Türkiye’s reaction

ANKARA

The elections to be held in northern Syria by the YPG have been postponed once again as a result of Ankara’s steadfast reaction, the Turkish security sources have said.

The YPG, the Syrian leg of the PKK terror organization, was planning to hold the elections in seven cantons in eastern Syria on June 11. But a statement issued by the YPG on June 6 announced the decision to postpone them to August.

The YPG’s initial plan was to elect local governors in the Cezire, Raqqa, Tabqa, Euphrates, Menbij, Afrin and Deir Ez Zor cantons on May 30 but they had to postpone it to June 11. Now they are postponed to August.

“Türkiye has demonstrated a strong reaction against the YPG’s plans to hold the elections. All sorts of engagements have been carried out to prevent the YPG/PKK from establishing its own state in northern Syria,” security sources stressed.

Sources from the Defense Ministry added that these polls should never take place. “These elections are unacceptable. They must be totally canceled,” they said.

The YPG has a strong influence in northern Syria as a result of the United States’ political and military support. Washington has partnered with the YPG in the fight against ISIL despite Ankara’s objections.

But the U.S. has also announced its opposition to the YPG-led elections in northern Syria. U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel has underlined that there was no suitable landscape for holding fair, free and transparent elections in northern Syria.

According to the sources, foreign powers who have seen the YPG’s move as a breach of the resolution 2254 of the U.N. Security Council have also pressed on the terror organization to call off the polls.

In addition, many local tribes, including Arabs and Kurdish groups, have also said they won’t endorse the YPG’s decision to go to the elections and announced that they will boycott them. The Syrian Kurdish National Council was one of the first groups that boycotted the polls. the Syrian Kurdistan Democrat Party and other political bodies have also voiced their opposition to holding the polls.

 Türkiye urges int’l community over polls

According to diplomatic sources, the Foreign Ministry has urged all countries not to take any steps that would legitimize these illegal polls by the YPG and not to deploy election observers.

The ministry also warned that allowing these polls will further de-stabilize Syria and escalate violence in the field. The YPG will not be contented with the local polls and will continue its moves to create its own entity at the expense of dividing the territorial integrity of Syria, Ankara urged all the concerned parties.

According to sources, Ankara has reiterated its determination to stand against any move that would endanger its national security and Syria’s territorial integrity. Sources vowed that Türkiye would continue its diplomatic engagement to nix these kinds of unilateral and illegal moves in Syria.