Iraq’s PUK Peshmerga Willing to Help Syrian Kurds If Turkey Invades

Iraq’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Peshmerga is prepared to offer “material aid” to the Syrian Kurdish YPG in the event that the Turkish government follows through on long-standing threats to invade eastern Syria.

Senior Peshmerga commander Mustafa Chawrash says his force will offer “anything that is within our capabilities.” He added that being part of Iraq precluded them from sending troops, but that ammunition and funding would be offered.

Turkey has long threatened to invade Eastern Syria to fight the YPG, with President Erdogan arguing that the YPG is effectively the same as Turkey’s own Kurdish faction, the PKK, and subsequently are terrorists.

The US has been trying to talk Turkey out of this attack, and at times US officials have suggested keeping troops in Syria is at least partly about deterring Turkey. If the fight does start, however, it is unlikely that a few hundred US troops would fight a major NATO member, and the YPG would likely be seeking support for the Iraqi Kurds instead.