Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit

Representatives of Kurdish groups across the Middle East have met in Moscow on Feb. 15 to attend a conference on Kurds and their future. 

Turkey will advance to Manbij and Raqqa in Syria if Ankara reaches a consensus with coalition forces, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said Feb. 13. 

The Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG), which is the military wing of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD), said on Jan. 23 that it would not be bound by any decision that emerges from the Syria talks in Kazakhstan as it was not involved in the meetings.

Turkey has obtained information about two Czech citizens who were caught illegally crossing the Turkish border into Iraq, and are suspected to have links to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG), Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in a joint press conference with his Czech counterpart, Lubomir Zaoralek, on Dec. 13.

YPG forces from the Afrin region were cooperating with the government in order to put pressure on the area north of Aleppo, he told reporters. 

The U.S. State Department has said there was no new deal with Turkey over the clearing of Syria's Manbij from the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG), the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is one of the sticking points in the already tense relationship between the two countries. It also noted that the YPG has already cleared the area. 

The United States is continuing to talk with ally Turkey on the role it will play in the operation to seize the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) main stronghold in Syria, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said on Nov. 2. 

A U.S.-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) plans to launch operations within weeks to isolate the Syrian city of Raqqa as an offensive in Iraq's Mosul continues, Washington said hours after Ankara said the Raqqa operation should start after the end of the Mosul and Turkey's Euphrates Shield operations in northern Syria. 

Fighters of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG), the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey regards as a terror organization, will be included as a part of the force to isolate the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held Syrian city of Raqqa, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said on Oct. 26. 

The Turkish army hit 70 outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) and 52 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in the past 24 hours as part of Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria, the military said on Oct. 22.