Talks aimed at ending a 40-year-old militant conflict have fostered peace hopes in Turkey but the precarious situation of Kurdish forces in Syria and uncertainty about Ankara's intentions have left many Kurds anxious about the path ahead.

A key dam in northern Syria has become a flash point in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups.

Turkey threatened Tuesday to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara's conditions for a "bloodless" transition after the fall of strongman president Bashar al-Assad.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that the new Syrian administration should be given an opportunity to address the presence of Kurdish militants in the country, and reiterated that the Turkish military would act if it did not.

Turkish-backed forces are intensifying attacks on Kurdish-controlled areas, targeting civilians and critical infrastructure as fears grow over a potential dam collapse.

Turkey is working to ensure that Syria's transformation over the last month will not bring new instabilities to the region, President Tayyip Erdogan told the Iraqi Kurdish prime minister, Erdogan's office said on Tuesday.

The Turkish Armed Forces have been put on high combat readiness due to the possibility of conducting an operation against Kurdish armed groups in Syria. This information was relayed to the pro-government newspaper "Türkiye" by sources from the Turkish Ministry of Defense.