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Turkey alarmed as Syrians return to key border town Kurdish fighters seized from IS

Xinhua, June 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Damascus announced on Wednesday that Syrians are beginning to return to a border town recaptured by Kurdish fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group. The Kurds' military advance has put the adjacent Turkey on high alert over a possible autonomous region controlled by the Kurds.

According to foreign ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgic, some 1,100 Syrians have returned to Syrian town of Tal Abyad.

These who are coming back were part of a total of 23,349 people who were forced to flee clashes between Kurdish fighters and jihadist militants and crossed into Turkey through Akcakale border crossing of southern Sanliurfa province over the past 13 days since June 3rd, said the spokesperson.

The neighboring Turkey is alarmed at Kurds' capture of a key border town from the IS group as Ankara worried that they could create a powerful autonomous region on its doorstep.

In 2014, the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) said that all Kurdish areas in northern Syria would declare autonomous, as cantons. With the capture of Tal Abyad, the PYD now has its hand on a 400 km belt of Kurdish controlled area near Turkish border.

The spokesperson said Ankara has conveyed these concerns to several capitals including the United Nations and NATO.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a meeting with members of the government and senior officials on the Syrian crisis on late Wednesday and will hold another security meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Ankara considers the PYD to be an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Enditem