Mesop INTEL : 4,500 Kurds from Turkey fighting with YPG in Syrian Kurdistan: intelligence

ANKARA,— RUDAW – Up to 4, 500 volunteers – mainly Kurds from Turkish Kurdistan (the southeast of the country)– have joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) that is fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Syrian Kurdistan, according to a Turkish intelligence report.

Citing the report, the Today’s Zaman daily said that volunteers have been traveling to Syrian Kurdistan since last year to join the YPG, the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The report says that volunteers come from a surprising backgrounds. “The candidates recruited for the YPG are young people from the families of well-known local politicians, leaders, businessmen and officials,” the newspaper quoted the report as saying.Backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, the YPG’s Kurdish fighters have been assaulting IS targets in Syria, especially the Kurdish regions, or Rojava. The majority of the volunteers were from the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H), the youth branch of the PKK in southeastern Turkey, the paper reported. It said that at least 173 fighters from Turkey were killed fighting alongside YPG forces in Syrian Kurdistan, while an estimated 690 wounded have been treated in Turkish hospitals since 2014.

Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan have been fighting the IS group on the Turkish border for the past year, and their recent advances have worried Turkey, which is opposed vehemently to a Kurdish state on its border.“I am saying this to the whole world: We will never allow the establishment of a state on our southern border in the north of Syria,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech last Friday. “We will continue our fight in that respect whatever the cost may be.”In their latest success, Syrian Kurdish forces regained full control of Gire Spi (Tel Abyad) on Wednesday, expelling Islamic State group fighters who had seized a district of the strategic border town, a monitor said. The Kurdish forces also have part in ongoing battle for Hasaka in Syrian Kurdistan between IS and Syrian regime army.