FACT SHEET ON THE SYRIAN KURDS

Washington Kurdish Institute

October 21, 2019

The effort to pin the ‘terrorist’ label on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the heroes of the fight against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), is Turkish propaganda.  Here are the facts:

Historical Background

• The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan, a Kurd from Turkey, in response to decades of violent oppression of the indigenous Kurdish people living within Turkey’s borders, including the denial of their identity and a ban on their language. a violent crackdown against ethnic Kurds in Turkey demanding greater cultural rights in the 1990s, including the ability to speak Kurdish and celebrate cultural holidays.  The PKK was initially fighting for the creation of an independent Kurdish state, but now calls for freedom and cultural rights of the Kurdish people to be guaranteed within the borders of Turkey rather than the establishment of a new state.
• Like the Kurds in Turkey, Syrian Kurds were brutally oppressed by the dictator Hafez al-Assad (father of the current dictator Bashar al-Assad). Many Syrian Kurds joined the PKK to struggle for Kurdish rights, and others were active with various Kurdish political parties within Syria.  The Democratic Union Party (PYD), founded in 2003, is one of Syria’s major Kurdish political parties.
• When Assad removed his armed forces from northern Syria in 2012 to support his military campaign to hold onto Aleppo and other key areas elsewhere in the country, the Syrian Kurds took control of their homeland and were able to maintain security in these areas of the country, which became commonly known as Rojava (the Kurdish word for “west”, meaning western Kurdistan). The PYD took a leading role at this time and worked with their security arm, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) to maintain peace and implement self-rule. In the struggle for security of their land, the YPG fought ISIS, the al-Nusra Front (al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria), and other jihadist groups. The YPG has never attacked Turkey and seeks only to maintain security in their homeland.
• The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were established by the U.S. Department of Defense to counter Islamic extremists such as ISIS who threatened to take control of Syria and Iraq.  The SDF is a multi-ethnic force of 60,000 men and women, with the YPG as a key part of this force. Most of the SDF’s fighters are too young to have ever been part of the PKK. The SDF publicly calls for a peaceful and a friendly relationship with Turkey, and not a single attack has been launched from the SDF areas into Turkey since its creation.

Why is the PKK on the Terrorist List?

• The PKK was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US in 1997 because Turkey was a NATO member. The PKK never targeted or opposed US interests anywhere in the world since its establishment.
• The two major Kurdish parties in Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), were previously listed as “Tier III” terrorist organizations by the US.  It is difficult to be removed from such a list once added. Indeed, these Iraqi Kurdish parties were military allies of the US while on this list, and their representatives were officially received by US presidents and other officials before they were removed from this list in 2014. Furthermore, many other revolutionary movements have been added to the FTO and removed later, like the People’s Mujahedin of Iran(MEK), even though they had killed Americans, and considered themselves an enemy of the United States.
• Turkey itself, under current President (and former Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, negotiated directly with the PKK from 2012 through 2015, and these negotiations included the direct involvement of imprisoned PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, who called for a ceasefire and an era of dialogue on Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, March 21, 2013.

Turkey’s Relations with the Syrian Kurds

• Turkish relations with the Syrian Kurds were positive and cooperative during the early years of the Syrian war.  Salih Muslim, previously co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish PYD and one of Syria’s most prominent Kurdish politicians, was invited by Erdogan three times to visit Ankara and meet with top Turkish government officials. During these visits, Turkish officials praised the PYD’s role in keeping the Turkey-Syria border safe.
• The YPG cooperated with the Turkish government and military in 2015 as they moved the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. This tomb was, per international treaty, property of Turkey, but came under threat by ISIS. Abdullah Ocalan cited this cooperation his Newroz message of 2015. The friendly relationship between Turkey and Ocalan abruptly ended in mid-2015, when Erdogan took a more belligerent approach to win support from nationalist voters after his party lost their parliamentary majority in Turkey’s June 2015 general elections.
• The YPG captured the attention of the world community during the siege of Kobani in 2014.  Poorly armed and outnumbered, the YPG resisted fiercely resisted invading ISIS forces against great odds. Just over Kobani’s northern border in Turkey, Turkish forces and media simply watched as the people of Kobani battled for their lives.  After weeks of resistance, YPG forces received assistance from American and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and were able to push back the well armed ISIS invaders. After months of epic resistance, the YPG gave ISIS their first major defeat in Kobani, representing a major turning point in the war against ISIS.  This landmark victory for the YPG and the US-backed Coalition to Defeat ISIS occurred despite Turkey’s decision not to assist in the battle against ISIS occurring on their southern border. Turkey did not allow the US forces to use the Incirlik NATO base in NATO to supply the Kurds of Syria, and Turkey did not intervene on behalf of the anti-ISIS forces in any other way.  Indeed, Turkey was seen as a pro-ISIS actor during this important battle and thereafter.

Turkey’s relationship with real Terrorists

• Turkey has partnered with numerous terrorist groups in Syria including the al-Nusra Front (the al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria) and numerous other less well-known jihadist militant groups such as Ahrar al-Sham, and has always been the preferred point of transit for many thousands of foreigners seeking to enter Syria to join ISIS and other similar groups.  The Turkish military coordinated directly with many of these jihadist groups in its invasion and occupation of the majority Kurdish city of Afrin last year, and the State Department has documented atrocities committed by these fighters in Afrin, where they displaced half a million people and killed thousands. Videos of these fighters celebrating their attacks against ethnic Kurds remain widely available on social media.
• Turkey’s relationship to ISIS has also been a point of concern for some time.  Most of the foreign fighters that entered Syria to join ISIS transited through Turkey, and, for much of the war, ISIS was exporting oil from Syria through Turkey and using these revenues to fund their infrastructure in Syria and Iraq, where their leadership encouraged, planned and coordinated terror attacks in the region and worldwide.  ISIS fighters were permitted to cross the Turkish-Syrian border to receive health care and purchase supplies in Turkey while Turkish authorities looked the other way. Some even lived without government opposition in Istanbul and elsewhere with their families. The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) is believed to have used ISIS members when it suited their interests in both Syria and Iraq.  While this direct collaboration within Syria and Iraq has not been proven in a court of law, many people on the ground are aware of these relationships, and numerous ISIS detainees have acknowledged it as well.
• On October 9 when Turkey’s “Operation Peace Spring” was launched against the Syrian Kurdish people, Mohammad Jolani, the leader of the al-Nusra Front (al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria), posted a video on the social media praising the Turkish invasion.  Turkish President Erdogan himself tweeted, via his official Arabic language account, to praise “fighters of the Mohammedan army” participating in operation. The Kurds are a Muslim majority ethnic group, and have helped create a self-governing structure in Syria that gives freedom of expression to all ethnic and religious groups.  Erdogan’s implicit labelling of the Kurds as the enemies of Islam is similar to the rhetoric of ISIS and al-Qaida.
• Turkey’s problem is not with the YPG, the PYD or even the PKK, their problem is with the Kurds.  In Turkey, Selahattin Demirtas, a former member of Turkey’s parliament who ran for the country’s presidency in 2014 and won 9.7% of the vote, has been imprisoned since November 2016 on various political charges.  Among other things, he has been charged for coordinating with the PKK even though he did so publicly in the context of the peace process with the full knowledge and approval of Turkey’s government at the same time when various representatives of Turkey’s government were also in direct contact with the PKK.
•  In the most recent Turkish elections, a number of Kurdish mayors were elected by overwhelming margins in their constituencies.  Soon after the elections, Erdogan removed these mayors from their posts and replaced them with government appointed “trustees”.

America’s Close Partner Against ISIS

• In the battle for Kobani, the Kurds of Syria established themselves as an effective and trustworthy partner in the battle against ISIS.  The SDF, with the YPG at its core, fought bravely and sacrificed greatly to eliminate ISIS from Syria as a territory-holding entity. In doing so, more than 11,000 SDF fighters gave their lives and more than 22,000 were wounded.  US and other coalition casualties were able to be kept to a minimum.
• ISIS once controlled large swathes of territory throughout Syria and Iraq, including major cities and strategic border crossings.  At its peak, ISIS functioned as a state, with perhaps 10 million people living in ISIS territory. ISIS territory was the site of some of the world’s most terrible human rights violations and acted as a planning ground for terror attacks in the region and worldwide
• The Kurds and their allies in North and East Syria established an autonomous administration in their liberated areas, with a system of government that stressed local governance and mandated that all ethnic and religious communities were given a voice in their own affairs.  This system has proven adaptable and well suited for an area such as Syria, where there is a diverse local population and ongoing conflicts pose great challenges.
• In addition to ensuring that all ethnic and religious communities participate in society, the Kurds of Syria and their allies aggressively promote gender equality and guarantee the rights of women in all institutions, from local government to the military.  Footage of Kurdish female fighters fighting and defeating ISIS are among the most enduring images of the conflict in Syria.
• The Kurds and their allies led the successful battle against ISIS and are now holding in their custody tens of thousands of captured ISIS fighters and their family members.  The ongoing campaign of Turkish military aggression provides an opportunity for these prisoners to escape, and this has reportedly already occurred.

What Happens If Turkey Gains Control of Kurdish regions in Syria?

• Unfortunately we know exactly what to expect.  In Syria’s Afrin, an ethnically Kurdish area which Turkey has occupied since their invasion last year, the Turkish military is working with jihadists to change the demographics of the region.  Kurds are not the only target, religious minority groups are especially in endangered by the Turkish military and their jihadist proxy militias. Already threatened Christian and Yazidi populations face further death and persecution if their homes are taken by these forces.