Syria's support to the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been revealed in reports belonging to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, dating back to 1983.
The reports also revealed that Turkey may possibly hit the terrorist targets in Syria.
The briefing indicated that Turkey is quite uncomfortable about the support of Syria to ASALA that operates in Syria and the PKK in Iraq.
The PKK terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan was known to have hidden in the complex of the al-Muhaberat, the Syrian intelligence service.
Between 1993 and 2000, Turkey's former President Süleyman Demirel also harshly reacted to Syria over its support to the PKK terrorists repeatedly.
Demirel said that it is inhumane to support a terrorist organization that left thousands of security forces and civilians martyred.
"Syria should immediately stop supporting PKK terrorists," former president Demirel said.
For decades, Syria and Turkey have been entangled in many disputes, including the self-annexation of the Hatay Province to Turkey in 1939, water disputes resulting from the Southeastern Anatolia Project, and Syria's support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and ASALA, which had also been recognized, like the PKK, as a terrorist organization by NATO, EU, and many other countries.
Relations improved after October 1998, when PKK terrorist Öcalan was expelled by Syrian authorities.
However, the Syrian Civil War began with uprising in 2011. It is estimated that more than 600,000 people have been killed in the Syrian Civil War, according to the recent figures.
