Kurds protest in Turkey against Syrian's Aleppo offensive

The demonstrators called for "resistance" while marking the third day of deadly clashes in the northern Syrian city.

"We urge states to act as they did for the Palestinian people, for our Kurdish brothers who are suffering oppression and hardship," Zeki Alacabey, a 64-year-old pensioner, told AFP.

The violence, which has claimed at least 17 lives since Tuesday, is the most serious Aleppo has seen between Islamist-led authorities and Kurdish fighters since the transitional Syrian government took over in Damascus.

The fighting broke out as both sides struggled to implement an agreement reached in March 2025 to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions into the new Syrian state following the toppling a year ago of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

The agreement has foundered on differences between the sides, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule.

Thursday's protesters brandished a large portrait of the longtime leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP video journalist reported.

Turkey, which has embarked on a peace process with PKK fighters, said meanwhile that it was ready to "support" the Syrian army against Kurdish forces, which hold several districts of Aleppo.

Ankara accuses the PKK, which led a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state, of links to Kurdish forces in Syria, and on Tuesday demanded that Kurdish armed groups in its neighbour lay down their weapons.

Demonstrators had already taken to the streets late Wednesday in several major Turkish cities with Kurdish majorities, including Diyarbakir and Van, according to images broadcast by the DEM, the country's main pro-Kurdish party.

DEM deputies protested Thursday in front of the Turkish parliament in Ankara, denouncing the targeting of Kurds in Aleppo as a crime against humanity.