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If the PKK/YPG terrorist group operating under the name SDF in Syria refuses to comply with the March 10 agreement, a large-scale military operation could follow, Turkish daily Hurriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote Sunday.
“An arc will be drawn with the compass placed in the center of Aleppo, and the east of the Euphrates will be cleared of the SDF,” Selvi wrote, warning that the group faces a decisive choice.
Since Tuesday, the SDF has shelled residential neighborhoods, civilian facilities and Syrian army positions in Aleppo, killing 23 people, wounding more than 100, and displacing around 165,000 residents from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud districts, according to official figures.
The attacks triggered a Syrian army operation that led to the evacuation of remaining SDF elements from key neighborhoods.
Selvi noted that U.S. Ambassador to Ankara and U.S. Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack was in Damascus on Saturday and wrote that following the Aleppo operation, the SDF would be given another opportunity to negotiate.
“If the SDF seizes this opportunity and complies with the March 10 agreement, there will be no need to carry out an operation east of the Euphrates,” he wrote.
He added that reconciliation remains possible, depending on the SDF’s approach after Aleppo.
However, Selvi warned that if the SDF chooses resistance, a major military operation could begin with the approval of Türkiye, the United States and the Syrian government.
“This operation has a timetable. It is said that the operation to be carried out east of the Euphrates may start in February,” he wrote.
He added that if no steps are taken, oil fields and customs crossings, key sources of income for the group, could also become targets.
Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib said Sunday that security and normal life are gradually returning to the city after key neighborhoods were cleared of YPG/SDF elements.
“The security situation is witnessing a gradual return to stability in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods,” al-Gharib said in a post on X.
He added that “the page of anxiety has been turned” and that Aleppo “has returned safe with its people—strong in their unity and fortified by their will.”
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the evacuation of the final group of YPG/SDF militants from Sheikh Maqsoud began on Saturday.
According to SANA, the militants were transported in a convoy of buses and ambulances after accepting evacuation terms, with another group evacuated from Yasin Hospital to the same destination.
Syrian state television said the evacuated groups were the last SDF elements in Aleppo, adding that Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh are now under full Syrian army control.
The militants are being transferred to Tabqa, west of the Euphrates River, an area under SDF control.
The Syrian army earlier announced that all military operations in Sheikh Maqsoud were halted as of 3 p.m. local time Saturday.
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In March 2025, the Syrian presidency announced an agreement for the SDF’s integration into state institutions, reaffirming Syria’s territorial unity and rejecting division.
In April 2025, Syrian authorities signed a separate agreement with the SDF on Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, recognizing them as administrative parts of Aleppo while respecting local particularities.
The agreement banned armed presence, restricted weapons to internal security forces and required the withdrawal of SDF military units to areas east of the Euphrates.
Syrian authorities say the SDF has failed to implement the terms of both agreements.
The Syrian government has intensified efforts to restore security nationwide since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Dec. 8, 2024, ending 24 years in power.
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