YPG's foreign mercenaries add to complexities of Syria's war

Donning combat fatigues and a hat, the unnamed foreign mercenary spoke in a US accent with a banner of the SDF, a militant group dominated by the YPG, in the background.

"We are all ready to go and fight in Afrin. We've been training for a significant amount of time in tactics that work against any force," he said in a video posted online last week. 

In another video, a British activist-turned mercenary vows to fight Turkish soldiers in Syria's Afrin region, where Turkey's Operation Olive Branch, which started on January 20, is underway.

Parents of the Briton, identified as Jamie Janson, told the BBC they're proud of their son.

Then there is a student of international politics, identified as British-Chinese militant, Huang Lei, who entered Syria in 2015 to fight Daesh and ended up with the YPG.

The trio, part of a cluster of foreign mercenaries employed by the YPG to fight Turkish soldiers and the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Syria’s Afrin region, has once again raised the spectre of Daesh-type militancy which is still menacing the Middle East, Europe and now Afghanistan.

"What we have now are transnational terrorists near our borders," Yusuf Alabarda, an expert on international defence, resources and planning, and management, told TRT World.

"The problem is that the PKK and the YPG are seen as secular forces by the western countries. They have empathy for these groups. The double-standard is that a Daesh woman suicide bomber is labelled as a terrorist but a YPG woman suicide bomber gets sympathy."

Radicalism and Islamophobia

The operation in Afrin — known for olive production in northwestern Syria — came following a US decision to create a border force of 30,000 YPG/SDF militants near Turkey's border in northern Syria.

Despite Turkey's offer last year to launch a joint operation with the US military in Syria's Raqqa — the so-called capital of Daesh in Syria — Washington instead chose to keep arming the YPG/SDF against Daesh, ignoring Ankara's concerns.

The YPG is the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, an armed group and also a designated terrorist organisation in Turkey, the US and the EU. The PKK has been fighting the Turkish state for more than 30 years.

The PKK has affiliates in Iraq and Iran as well, and Turkey and Iran see it as a threat to their national security.

Afrin has been a YPG/PKK stonghold since July 2012 when forces loyal to Bashar al Assad abandoned the city.

The emergence of transnational militants in the ranks of YPG, experts warn, is closely linked to growing radicalism and Islamophobia in Europe and the US.

"There is a great advance in radicalisation and racism in Europe and the US against Muslims. Look at the irony, the radicals who are joining the YPG are not inspired by the PKK's leftist ideology but by their far-right thoughts," Murat Aslan, who teaches security studies at Hasan Kalyoncu University, told TRT World. 

"Turkey will not differentiate if they are European or American mercenaries. Anyone with a uniform or badge of YPG/PKK will be killed," Alsan said when asked whether the death of a British or an American mercenary would add to already strained relationships within NATO.

"If these mercenaries are captured alive, Turkey will subject them to Turkish laws. It's a war out there. We don't have the luxury to make out who is whom," Aslan said.

In a recent New York Times commentary, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on the United States to abandon its policy of arming terrorist organisations.

"A NATO ally arming a terrorist organisation that is attacking another NATO ally is a fundamental breach of everything that NATO stands for," Cavusoglu wrote.

"It is a policy anomaly that needs to be corrected."

'Western exceptionalism'

The Syrian conflict and the emergence of Daesh in Iraq and Syria attracted thousands of young radicals, many of them from Europe.

Some of those who joined Daesh have returned home to launch attacks — including the November 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead — despite European countries concern to screen returnees for Daesh membership or sympathies.

But in the case of radicals who joined the US-backed YPG, observers say there has been little to no concern in either the US or Europe about them coming home.

"This is called western exceptionalism," said Alabarda, a Turkish military veteran who once served as a UN officer in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

"They’re simply saying: 'You cannot do it, but we can'," he said, adding further, "I’ve witnessed during the Bosnian war what foreign mercenaries can do. They’re not accountable to anyone."

The US and European countries in question don't see the PKK as a threat. Evidence of this are comments by Kati Piri, the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur.

"Here is the issue; for us, the Kurdish militia, the PKK and its variations are not a threat. There are no attacks of PKK in the Netherlands, Belgium or France. For us, when it comes to Syria, apart from the humanitarian catastrophe the threat is ISIS [Daesh]."

Violation of UN rules

Alabarda noted that UN regulations make it "illegal to employ" foreign mercenaries in a war.

"Suppose, a war crime takes place in Afrin. Will the UN be unable to judge foreign mercenaries of YPG for war crimes since they have no obligation to any country?"

PR videos posted online by the mercenaries raise questions about US dependence on war contractors and mercenaries in various conflicts.

"These are skillful people and Pentagon could be funding them," Alabarda said, adding, "They could be part of a military contract system. The contractors have earned lots of money in Afghanistan Iraq and Middle East wars."

Security expert Aslan said that the US is "fully aware" of this trend.

"There is also a likelihood of them being part of a larger special services forces," Aslan said, adding, "If these people can succeed in surviving in Afrin, they can be easily mobilised to other countries."

Western support for the YPG

Western countries have tried to prevent their nationals from joining Daesh but experts in Turkey say that EU nations have shown no real intention of stopping their citizens from joining the PKK or YPG terrorist groups.

"Turkey has been saying for a very long time that there is a support to PKK in the EU countries. The substance of those claims is tangible now," Eray Gucluer, a terrorism and defence expert at the Ankara-based Eurasian Center for Strategic Studies (ASAM) told TRT World.

"The Dutch have realised that Turkey's fight against the YPG or PKK has genuine reasons," he said referring to Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra's recent marks that Turkey has sufficient grounds for self-defence "since the country faced attacks."

Turkey's action will determine whether other European countries and the US will take note, Gucluer concluded.

"Turkey's ground success will determine its political and diplomatic pressure on the EU countries and the US against these mercenaries."