“Assad and PYD or PKK are the same and are in coordination. They are in [Aleppo’s] Sheikh Maqsoud and are surrounded by [President Bashar] Assad all around but there are no issues between them,” Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Hamadeen Abu Ryadh of the Syrian National Army’s Third Legion, a member of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), told Rudaw English.
The colonel pointed to a recent statement from Afrin canton officials calling on Damascus to protect the area and fulfil its sovereign duties.
“They consider themselves a part of the Assad regime and there are meetings between the two,” the colonel claimed.
The FSA formed to combat Assad. Its coordination with Turkey in a fight against Kurdish forces has raised questions about what their goal is.
“The Syrian Revolution initially arose against the criminal Assad regime and every component of the Syrian nation participated in it,” Bara al-Shami, spokesperson of Jabhat al-Shamiyah (Levantine Front) an FSA group participating in the Afrin offensive, told Rudaw English.
The Front is a coalition of mainly Islamist factions that merged in 2014.
The spokesperson accused Kurdish forces of being accomplices with Assad and said that “separatist movements,” meaning the Kurdish armed force YPG and ruling political party PYD, need to be opposed, as well as Assad.
The Kurdish groups have largely avoided confrontation with the Syrian regime, focusing on the war with ISIS and carving out their self-autonomous region that now encompasses about a quarter of the country. They have proposed that the brand of federalism they are building could be applied to the whole country.
Their self-governance and alliance with the United States, however, have drawn the wrath of Damascus and Assad has labelled the Kurdish forces “traitors.”
“All those working under the command of a foreign country in their own country regardless of their name are traitors,” Assad said.
The SDF General Command hit back, saying Assad’s dictatorship is “the definition of treason” and the people rebelled against his “authoritarian oppressive security regime.”
The Kurdish YPG have been the main ally of the US within the multi-ethnic Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting against ISIS in northern Syria. Syrian officials have vowed to retake all areas from the Kurdish forces.
Aldar Khalil, Executive Committee Member of the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) in Rojava, the governing coalition, has on more than one occasion said they will not accept a return to a centralized government in Syria.
Khalil warned Assad against trying to attack their areas, saying "his forces will be decimated completely if he attacks."
The FSA commanders now fighting in Afrin stress the importance of keeping Syria united.
“I, as a Syrian, see every inch of my homeland as my homeland,” Shami explained.
He justified Turkey’s participation because of “mutual interests.”
“Turkey participated in the battle due to mutual interests between us. Turkey considers PKK terrorist and PYD is its extension,” he said.
Turkey has long opposed Assad, though Ankara officials have muted their rhetoric as they have sought to rebuild relations with Russia, who is propping up Damascus. For the FSA, Turkey is one of their last remaining allies.
“It’s going to be a tough battle, maybe five or six months, [but] we have nobody except Turkey,” a rebel commander told The Guardian.
Shami asserted that Turkey has no hidden ambitions in Syria and Mohammed said Turkey has no intention to occupy Syrian territory.
Rather, Mohammed explained, Turkey was about the only country that had a truthful and steadfast stance on the Syrian issue and has always stood by the Syrian people.
Turkey’s military operation has claimed the lives of 67 civilians, including 20 children and 12 women since the start of the operation, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Head of the Turkey-based opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council (SNC), George Sabra, likened the suffering of Afrin to all of Syria.
“Our people in Afrin are not the only ones suffering. The suffering of the Syrian nation has not ceased for seven years up to today unfortunately,” Sabra told Rudaw TV.
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