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Tensions run high between the U.S.-backed YPG, the Syrian wing of the terrorist group PKK, and the new administration in Damascus. Despite a March deal between the two sides, a fresh confrontation erupted in Aleppo. The army of post-Assad Syria intercepted members of the SDF on Sunday while attempting to infiltrate several military positions east of Aleppo city in northern Syria, local media said, using the name of the umbrella group the YPG identifies itself as part of, to earn legitimacy.
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), army forces “confronted” and “ambushed” a group of YPG terrorists who tried to infiltrate army positions in the village of Tal Maez, east of Aleppo.
SANA, citing an unnamed government source, said other YPG members stationed in Umm Tineh and Deyr Hafir in the Aleppo countryside shelled army positions in Tal Maez in an attempt to release their fighters from the confrontation.
Syrian army forces exchanged fire with the YPG, with military reinforcements dispatched to army positions in Tal Maez, the news agency said.
On March 10, the Syrian Presidency announced an agreement to integrate the YPG into state institutions, stressing the country’s territorial integrity and rejecting any separatist agenda.
Since the ouster of Bashar Assad last year after 24 years in power, the Syrian government has stepped up security measures. Assad fled to Russia in December, marking the end of the Baath Party’s rule since 1963. A transitional administration, headed by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, took office in January.
With U.S. support under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the YPG seized large swaths of northern and eastern Syria during the civil war, occupying key oil, water and agricultural resources. Turkish cross-border operations have since reduced their grip, but the group remains entrenched in several areas.
Under the March deal, the YPG would merge with the new Syrian national army. The agreement, which is expected to be implemented by the end of the year, would also bring all border crossings with Iraq and Türkiye, as well as airports and oil fields in the northeast, under the central government’s control. Detention centers housing thousands of Daesh members, now guarded by the YPG, would also come under government control.
However, the YPG’s insistence on entering the army as one bloc has stalled the process, and there have been scattered outbreaks of violence. The group has also been making statements calling for autonomy and thus endangering the territorial integrity of Syria.
Ankara views the YPG as an extension of the PKK terrorist group, which recently announced its dissolution and began a disarmament process that will end 40 years of bloodshed in Türkiye. The YPG insists it is not a party to the disarmament.
Türkiye, which developed cordial ties with the transitional government, has pledged to continue supporting Syria’s political unity and territorial integrity, providing training and technical support upon request from Damascus to strengthen its fight against terrorist groups. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed that Türkiye “will not allow terrorists to drag Syria back into chaos and instability.”
Ankara is closely monitoring the integration of the YPG into the Syrian army. Turkish officials have said earlier that this development will be decisive for Syria’s long-term security architecture.
The YPG’s push for decentralization and symbolic changes, such as altering the country’s name, is widely seen by Türkiye as part of a broader effort to entrench separatist control in Syria’s north.
