ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday lashed out at what he dubbed the Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) perception that the contents of a March agreement to integrate their forces into the Syrian military "don't bind" them, warning the Kurdish-led group to change its policies.

“We see many statements, especially from [People’s Protection Units] YPG and SDF in the new period; unfortunately, when we look at the sum of these statements, the picture that emerges is ‘we do not perceive the March 10 agreement this way’… The articles written in that agreement don’t bind us, they say, [and] secondly, the [peace] process that is underway in Turkey doesn’t concern us,” said Fidan in a joint presser with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Wednesday in Ankara.

“Ok, what is it that concerns you? Are you interested in making the beloved Kurdish people in the region, our Kurdish brothers and sisters in Syria, pawns of Israel? So you need to bring an end to this policy,” the Turkish top diplomat added.

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement in March to officially integrate the SDF and all other institutions in northeast Syria into the Syrian state institutions. Discussions, however, have stagnated since then in light of the violent sprees by certain factions in the Syrian army in the Alawite and Druze heartlands in Syria.

Despite the March agreement, disagreements still run deep between the Kurdish authorities and Sharaa’s government about the model of governance in Syria, with Sharaa aiming to consolidate power and maintain full sovereignty over all Syrian territories, while the Kurds advocate for a federal state where they maintain a degree of self-governance.

“We do not see any positive developments in Syria that would inspire confidence or indicate that the organization has eliminated the threat of armed action, neither after March 10 nor after the process in Turkey,” said the Turkish foreign minister.

Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, to be inextricably linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and thereby sees the SDF as an extension of their now-disbanded domestic foe.

"I’m warning you again and calling on you: the position you’re taking is not the right one," said Fidan.

In an interview with the SDF-affiliated Hawar News Agency (ANHA) earlier in August, Abdi said that the integration of armed forces and institutions of north and east Syria into the Syrian state cannot be achieved by force, expressing their willingness to take “practical steps” toward an understanding with Damascus.

“Integration means partnership. Between all Syrians, between Syria's components, and between all existing administrations, a new Syria must be built on the basis of a new partnership. This cannot be imposed by force, and from the beginning, we have opposed any attempt to impose it by force,” Abdi told ANHA.

“Nobody is a fool; we are not fools,” said Fidan during the presser. “They should not think we don’t see this. We see this.”

The Turkish foreign minister held a meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa earlier in the week, where the pair discussed “security issues, focusing on internal and external threats to Syria's sovereignty and political unity.”

“We will continue to support Syria's fight against terrorist organizations,” Fidan wrote in an X post after his meeting with Sharaa.

The SDF and the Syrian army have recently been engaged in a number of altercations, predominantly in Syria’s Deir Hafer area, with both sides accusing one another of provocations and escalation.