Assad bargains with terrorist YPG/PKK to stay afloat

ANKARA The Assad regime in Syria bargained with YPG/PKK terrorists to prevent a further erosion in the value of the local currency, the Syrian pound, according to sources in the country. Through this bargaining, the Assad regime showed a willingness to work with a terrorist group that has oppressed and terrorized locals in northern Syria, along the Turkish border. With the Assad regime unable to pay its rising debts to its supporters Russia and Iran, it looked to the terrorist group YPG/PKK to help stop the Syrian pound’s depreciation and possible economic collapse, said the sources. The YPG/PKK had been paying its members in dollars, which depressed the local currency, but the regime made a deal with the terrorists to stop this practice. The regime dropped customs taxes of goods sent from areas under YPG/PKK occupation to regime-controlled areas and pledged to improve trade ties in exchange for the terror group switching to Syrian pounds. In addition, the regime stopped offering to buy wheat and barley from farmers in areas under YPG/PKK occupation at better prices than the terror group. At the beginning of this year, it took 1,000 Syrian pounds to buy $1, but recently it soared as high as 4,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar. Many locals in Idlib, northwestern Syria have turned to using the Turkish lira instead of clinging to the rapidly hemorrhaging Syrian pound. New US sanctions on the Assad regime that went into force this week are also expected to hit the economy hard. In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot. * Writing by Havva Kara Aydin