Support rallies held for Syrian Kurds in the southeast

Rallies were held on Saturday in several Turkish cities with predominantly Kurdish populations, including Batman and Siirt, in support of besieged Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, according to an AFP correspondent and pro-Kurdish media outlets.

In Batman, more than a hundred demonstrators, many of them young people, gathered at the call of the youth wing of the pro-Kurdish DEM party, the third-largest force in the Turkish parliament, the news website Rüdaw Türkçe reported.

According to the outlet, which published footage of the march, police intervened to control the crowd “without incident.” Other images showed protesters gathered behind banners reading “Rojava is not alone,” a reference to the self-declared Kurdish Autonomous Administration in northern and eastern Syria.

Similar gatherings have taken place in recent days in several localities in the region, as Syrian government forces push back the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) east of the Euphrates after demanding they evacuate the last neighborhoods of Aleppo they still controlled. The SDF said it lost several fighters on Saturday, despite a 48-hour ceasefire agreement that was supposed to allow them to withdraw from two towns taken by government forces.

Islamist President Ahmad el-Chareh, who overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, has sought to extend his control over all Syrian territory. Turkey has supported him despite a peace process underway for more than a year with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish militant group in Turkey that Ankara considers affiliated with the SDF.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday defended the possible “use of force.” “I hope these issues will be resolved through dialogue, but when they cannot be settled through negotiation and good faith, unfortunately the use of force becomes an option for the Syrian government,” he said.