SDF Dissolved: Türkiye Got What It Wanted in Syria. The US Is Pleased. Watch Israel.

It was announced by its leader, Mazloum Abdi, in Damascus on the evening of August 25 that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had dissolved itself and joined the Syrian army.

Abdi made the announcement at the Presidential Palace after meeting with President Ahmed al-Sharaa. He was wearing not guerrilla clothes but a smart suit, just like the one Sharaa wore after taking control of the government in Damascus at the end of 2024.

“Today, we are closing an important chapter in Syria’s history and opening a new page for peace, stability and the reconstruction of the homeland,” he said, before sitting between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani and Ilham Ahmed, described as the foreign minister of the now-dissolved SDF, who too was no longer wearing guerrilla clothes but a simple black suit. In his speech, he said he had received a promise from Sharaa for education in the mother tongue.

The SDF was dissolved just as it had been created

The SDF was established in 2015 at the request of then-US Special Forces Commander General Raymond Thomas, who, as he revealed in 2017 after his retirement, had asked the PKK’s Syrian branch, the PYD, and its armed wing, the YPG, to create it. This was because US law officially classified the PKK as a terrorist organisation, while CIA reports submitted to Congress for budget approval referred to the PYD and YPG as extensions of the PKK.

That was why I used to look with a heavy heart at the faces of young militants from armed Turkish leftist groups who, in the ranks of the SDF, were sent to fight ISIS (Daesh) in the Syrian deserts, while posters describing them as “martyrs of our revolution” and showing them in camouflage uniforms bearing the hammer and sickle were put up on the walls of poor neighbourhoods in Istanbul.

General Thomas was acting on the orders of US President Barack Obama, who had decided to cooperate not with NATO ally Türkiye but with the PKK against ISIS during the 2014 Kobani events. Obama wanted a mercenary force that would carry out whatever it was told without questioning it.

It was also US Ambassador to Ankara Tom Barrack who announced that Ferhat Abdi Şahin, known by the nom de guerre Mazloum Abdi, and Ilham Ahmed would take up positions in Syrian government institutions.

An indecent proposal

The SDF adventure had been started by the United States, and it was the United States that ended it.

But there is one more detail that should not be forgotten.

The date was October 16, 2019, during Donald Trump’s first presidency. That day, Trump released to the press the letter he had written to Erdoğan on October 9, the very day Türkiye launched Operation Peace Spring against PKK targets in Syria.

It was the letter in which the US President arrogantly told the Turkish President, “Don’t be a fool, don’t be a tough guy” and which he later put on display in the “Trump Museum.”

Washington was so confident that the SDF it supported would emerge victorious that Trump also sent Erdoğan a letter he had received from “General Mazloum,” suggesting that it would be a good idea for him to talk to the General.

Had the SDF project succeeded, Israel would have been among the countries to benefit most from it. A non-Arab and preferably secular option that would cut Türkiye off from the Arab geography from the Mediterranean to the Iranian border, and could be used as an armed force against Iran when necessary, would always have been kept at hand.

Indeed, a plan to drag the United States into a ground war by using armed Kurdish groups in Israel’s attacks on Iran was prevented, to some extent, by Türkiye’s intervention.

In fact, two important developments in the region took place after that was prevented.

Israel’s move against Türkiye through Syria

Two developments that did not suit Israel’s interests occurred in the same week in the first half of August, following the NATO Ankara Summit in July.

– The Mecca Defence Agreement was signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. With this agreement, a new axis of power emerged in the Middle East that would balance both Israel and Iran.

– The Terror-Free Türkiye framework law was passed by the Turkish Parliament, giving a legal basis to the possibility of a political solution to the Kurdish issue under the roof of parliament through the PKK’s laying down of arms.

The fact that Israeli jets struck the Abu Zuhur airbase, which was under repair and close to the Syrian-Turkish border, on August 18, just hours after Erdoğan told Trump by phone to “stop Israel,” showed the scale of Israel’s reaction to these developments. One reason for Erdoğan’s phone call to Trump was that the Mossad chief had called the Syrian foreign minister on August 14 and asked him not to seek military assistance from Türkiye. Shaibani had come to Türkiye and told Turkish officials about this, as well as Barrack.

Benjamin Netanyahu wants to blackmail Trump by saying: “Türkiye must withdraw from Syria, or we will strike.”

Trump needs a Syrian success

One of the last things Trump would probably want right now would be for an Israel-provoked conflict between Türkiye and Israel, one that could also affect NATO, to break out through Syria.

Trump has not been able to get out of the war with Iran, into which he was dragged by Israel. He cannot end the Russia-Ukraine war. Before the November 3 midterm elections, Syria is perhaps his most important remaining prospect for a major success.

It is no coincidence that, one day before the SDF—which Türkiye regards as an extension of the PKK—announced its dissolution, the United States removed both Syria and HTS from its terrorist list.

The United States’ success in Syria is, in some way, proceeding in parallel with the Terror-Free Türkiye process.

The most important risk factor that could disrupt this course is the possibility that Benjamin Netanyahu may mobilise the powerful Israel lobby in Washington against Türkiye, whatever the cost. Until October 27, it is necessary to be prepared for every kind of provocative action by the Netanyahu government in the region.