Following a meeting in Damascus, the Syrian Ministry of Defense issued a statement calling on SDF fighters to join the ranks of the regime’s army stating that those who have not concluded involuntary military service under the Syrian Army. The SDF responded to the call in a written statement:
“The Syrian Ministry of Defense issued a statement today calling on the SDF to engage with the Syrian army to defend the country against the Turkish ambitions.
We value everything that will unify efforts to defend Syria and repel the Turkish aggression against our country and our people. Our position was clear from the beginning, as the unity of ranks must proceed from a political settlement that recognizes and preserves the privacy and structure of SDF, in addition to finding a sound mechanism for restructuring the Syrian military establishment to be an inclusive framework for unifying efforts.
Similarly, the members of SDF have been the best fighters against ISIS for years and destroyed its alleged caliphate in defense of Syria and the world at large. Accordingly, those heroes deserve praise and honor and not settlement of the situations and pardons of those issued against criminals and terrorists.
We also stress that the SDF members are disciplined soldiers and a military organization with an institutional structure, and we absolutely reject this language of speech addressed to individuals while it was the first of the Syrian Ministry of Defense to address its speech to the General Command of the SDF in order to open a dialogue that shows a sincere desire to unite efforts.
The General Command of the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
