News continues on aljazeera but first its inside story. Shifting alliances in Syria Kurdish fighters backed by the us say the syrian armys tell them face turkish troops the border area now an increasingly dangerous jigsaw feels over by groups who want different outcomes first russia analysts and whats next for syria this is inside story. Hello again im peter davi welcome to the program after seven years of war the complex mosaic that is the battlefield in syria can still surprise the u. S. Russia iran turkey a myriad of rebel groups and of course the Syrian Regime all involved and they all want to second guess where the conflict is heading next its Northern Syria whether attention is now focused because it is there that we may be seeing a new front the kurds aligning themselves with the regime ready to take on Turkish Forces game changer last month turkey launched an offensive to seize the syrian city of a friend from the kurdish fighters of the y. P. Ji a group it considers terrorists and a threat to its border but the y. P. G. Helped the u. S. In the fight against eisel further straining u. S. Relations with ankara and now turkey faces a new enemy pro Syrian Government troops the could say theyve done a deal with syria to join forces to fight turkey syrian progovernment troops and their involvement well that was announced by syrian state t. V. On monday. Set the tone for the following the turkish attacks on our families and their friends and following the request of our Friends Citizens from the regime to protect them from the ongoing tega should question that led to so many killings and destruction it has been declared now that popular troops were and to a friend within hours crucially how did turkey receive that news has the Turkish Foreign minister you know suddenly changed it were in him if the regime is the interim the cleans. He why did he then there are no problems however if they come in to defend the white g. Nothing and nobody can stop us the supplies to efren as well as mehmet be into the east of the Euphrates River well our friend is part of Northern Syria and has an extremely complex mix of alliances with several regional and International Players all involved last month the u. S. Led Coalition Announced it was intending to build a Border Security force in Northern Syria it would consist of thirty thousand mostly kurdish fighters whove been helping in the battle to get rid of eisel but that strained u. S. Relations with turkey of course a key nato ally turkey launched an offensive to secure its border and clear a friend of the y. P. G. The kurdish fighters it considers to be terrorists ankara says the groups an offshoot of the p. K. K. The Kurdistan Workers Party with which turkey has been in conflict for three decades russia controls the airspace over threaten but the head of the Turkish Operation it withdrew hundreds of its soldiers from near the city kurdish fighters held after in six years ago after the syrian president Bashar Al AssadSoldiers LeftNorthern Syria. Lets go to our guests now joining us from istanbul mohammed yangon and affiliates of the Political Science department at the university of bill kent in bilin sell a muslim member of the Diplomatic Committee of tev demme the movement for Democratic Society thats an alliance bringing kurds together in Northern Syria and joining us from a so and its me on skype is Joshua Landis director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma welcome to you all joshua coming to you first who is going to end up fighting whom he i dont think this is it designed to avoid fighting and it should be a win win for everybody because turkey gets to stop its invasion over twenty turkish soldiers have been killed so far syria gets to reassert its sovereignty and the kurds dont get killed there in about a thousand waikiki thats the militia of the kurds killed so far by Turkish Forces so it would stop in theory that turkish invasion syrian wouldnt just arm the kurdish troops there and have them stand down so turkey wouldnt be any by getting rid of the waikiki Syria Territory and the kurds. Get to fight another day let me get in istanbul is that an interpretation that is perceived in the highest office in the land with the president mr. Well pretty much i think because in the in the beginning we remember that Turkish Armed forces declared that turkey has. Has a respect for syrian territorial integrity and its for selfdefense and here we see that that the Regime Forces are getting into two to offer in which is pretty much in line with their territorial integrity of syria here i think the most important thing is that whether the russians or and Syrian Regime of course will provide the necessary security koran tears to turkey about the position of. Why puji in offering i think that this is the critical part if turkey. And and the regime makes a deal a similar one to to the u. S. In and members and it is tough a year frets then i think that that will not be a turn to be a crisis but if it does not achieve it in the in this period than the conflict may continue and it may escalate to one that is not that is beyond turkey as well between the u. S. And russia which is which is the worst Case Scenario of course will come on to the whole debate surrounding the euphrates discussion because that speaks to the part of the discussion we have to talk about the idea of partition or whether syria will ultimately end up being the subjects of partition some a muslim in berlin in your mind who was the brew could this deal who put it together. Well first of all i would like to say. The Democratic Syrian forces which in their offer now. The children of africa and why puji theyre organized themselves and defending their families in villages and of course i mean the invasion of turkey trying to. Pry the place of often as they have. Jobless and so this is a part of it. As the syrians shuja compliments have been the ups the kurds all together we are defending our freedom and we consider this invasion and this operation atlanta is a continuation of the fighting was was going in. In there is a kind of relief of the fighting going in there is a win so ok thing that i just want to jump in there with one particular point nobody is going to decry or criticize or lessen the fight that the kurdish fighters fought against isis so and of course its maybe worth noting at this point in our conversation that the Syrian Regime forces have never gone head to head with ice so your fight with turkey predates by almost twenty five years the fight against syria so why the about face here is this really just a case of my enemys enemy is my friend. Well we are we are not the threat for turkey at all i mean all we are doing we are part of the Syrian People and we are looking for the solution in syria a democratic solution for everybody and turkey is trying to help circle this way i mean this approach from the beginning i mean they are trying to. Change the according to their plan because they are refusing even the moderate the cries for all the people of syria and democratic solution of what syria and now for the syria and i mean what we are looking for is just the Syrian Government to protect the surgerys who are syria i mean thats all. We are about we are not going to return back to the all voices region as it was before and depressing and that russia looking for the solution and. Already i mean that a lot with. Government forces is just to protect the civilians of the syrian territory Joshua Landis do you buy that that this will more than a dialogue and if that dialogue actually has inbuilt guarantees it may actually succeed. Yes i agree with that id like to correct one thing you said which is that the Syrian Regime is not gone at the at isis of course the Syrian Regime has has fought isis for a long time and took half the territory the kurds took one happy territory without the and much United States and the syrian army took the other half of the help of iran so there is going to long war going on between the Syrian Government and isis but to your question up a team this there is still some disagreement between the Syrian Government and the kurds the kurds have been there in fact that they are willing to meet in a military unit but they say a political and administered agreement has not been struck that they will discuss those questions later syria of course is insisting that it be restored to full minister to authority in a not being and so there are clearly tensions between the kurds and the Syrian Government which is why its taken a month into this invasion to come to an agreement the Syrian Government and the kurds were talking before the invasion the kurds did not want to concede. Total sovereignty to the Syrian Government and still havent officially so theres going to be there is going to be some tuning in prong yet. When youre in istanbul if a friend and man b. Were to fall to the turkish lead slash Turkish Backed forces that would mean that there would be a whole stretch of about two hundred kilometers that would be as far as the Syrian Regimes concerned dangerously close to that area of partition or the consequence of the potential consequence of partition that you hinted at earlier if thats the case is that something is that something that ankara wants to get to or does it just is it happy to stay within this idea of border integrity as it stands at the moment. Well i think the latter is true for turkey because. It is important to. See that that the Syrian Regime the syrian syria as a as a country has the territorial integrity and has the security off its borders or it is their turkish borders as well but it needs to grant power again it needs a grant negotiation and under the table to make such such agreements between the parties. So far it has not achieved but if it achieved i dont think that turkey will object to that and i dont think that turkey will be the party that is piling that that is not letting that happen so thats my point of view on that so the muslim the kurds have a stablished what three can toms here arguably they are powerful they can sustain that is part of the game plan for the kurds here particularly if we talk about a strain and then man b. To make sure that the Turkish Forces if the kurds are fighting alongside the Syrian Regime forces is the game plan here to make sure the Turkish Forces get bogged down almost literally on the ground in this quite small localized but combustible conflict. Well from the beginning i have there are many points i mean it should be mentioned one of them weve never been a threat for turkey we never threaten to threaten turkey at all from the beginning and there was that action all these areas and turkey never done anything is just supported and those mercenaries and they supported those extremists from the beginning and still Everybody Knows still supporting them and even this war in our frame is a kind of supporting the also groups this is known by everybody this is one point and the other point we still consider ourselves we are part of syria we have a project for all the critics syria and from the beginning i mean one general told start started even for sochi and even for the. It is absolutely us to to draw and i mean preventing us to join and all of this is a false i mean for the political solution and we have a mother for syria already its not only the kurdish problem because we have the kurds the are absent syria altogether we have established system and this is the means of hope for future syrians could be an example its very democratic we have institutions we have everything and also we are protecting ourselves we said we are part of syria so if any agreements should be it could be a final for the political solution for syria and we have never been through it for turkey. There know that very well i mean is just an excuse i mean because they are trying to prevent any democratic cause for the could just people and for the other components or for syria for example for the other minorities in the areas or for the arabs which this is them we have established so the end is not the. Could you see its not because theres turned to this turkey they have could go for beer but its not right we never had been through it for two and a nobody just to hear about it on the whole is nobody on the whole that innocent either inside the country or outside the countries particularly on board and it comes to a political solution for the kurds thats a different discussion Joshua Landis where the where the russians in all this occurs to me that theyre not particularly wedded to their loyalty to damascus but equally theyre not wedded to this quite Good Relationship that mr putin seems to have with mr erdogan despite the fact that were almost two and a bit years ago the turks shot a russian Fighter Aircraft at the skies the relationship took a nosedive but then it came back up again. Yes it has and russia is very much at the center of these negotiations undoubtedly because turkey everyone will not speak to the Syrian Regime russia has been the interlocutor here and and has been trying to preserve good relations with the kurds with the turks and with the us uk which of course is very difficult to do but this is very favorable for russia because it it means that turkey doesnt step in to syria that assad its client in a sense in this whole thing yes to reassert its authority the United States is less likely to be totally happy with this deal we just saw the n. S. C. Had mcmaster say now is the time to push back against you but the United States is waiting they want to help the kurds they want to stabilize syria on the one hand but on the other hand they want to roll back iran and help to drive iran out of syria thats their stated goal and this of course by spreading the of door to the syrian state helps to reassert both russian and iranian authorities over more syrian territory and that will of course upset many in washington hes met mcguigan in istanbul kurdish dreams of federalism weve just seen them heard them there being articulated by selling muslim in berlin cannot surely coexist with what you might call turkish dreams of a terrorist free state just across the border in syria well for of perth i have to say that that there are qualified legations made by mr muslim about about turkey and and and occurred a phobia is a harsh word that i have to react because he was himself in the beginning of the problem he was getting to two ancora coming and going back and there was not a current of fog and then and also we have to remind that that there is a. Opening of corridor for combining by turkey of the peshmerga against isis so so here i think we have to just just not to stars does the shows at first i dont think that turkey has any and the problems about kirks having their rights their cultural rights their position in syria but turkey has problems about their connections of p. Y. T. And why p. G. We came because these connections are appearing in the problems of the weapons that are getting into the hands of the p. K. K. Against turkey the training in syria that is that may get into the hands of p. K. K. Against turkey and of course using the territories that are held by y puji as a base against turkey desired the concerns of turkey but in the beginning if he can remark in think and remember that turkey always supported the rights of Kurdish People in syria and also turkey in the beginning said that this is a federal structure and that that provides a position for a Kurdish People in syria is also are after a couple if the wife is not cooperating with the p. K. K. Is laying down his weapons against turkey itself so we got to think about is first and then then talk about what should be in syria or not if conditions are provided then i dont think turkey has any problems because look at turkeys relations with katie fear in iraq there is not a problem of out there theres no problem about having how they look at america and im going to stop you there because we are getting rather bold were getting rather bold and in the clincher of this so lets just simplify it and lets just take a minute and muslim a rights of reply their son a muslim in berlin will you restate for us know that there is no political or military link up between the why p j y p g and the p. K. K. We are well we stood up from the beginning we have no relation with anybody we are just thinking of syria and there is no piccy k. In syria in africa that people are defending in africa and there