Event: Repairing the Damage: The future of U.S. relations with Syrian Kurdish Partners and the fight against ISIS

Turkey’s recent invasion of the predominantly Kurdish region (Rojava) in northeast Syria has upended the successful four-year partnership between the United States and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against ISIS in Syria and left the Syrian Kurds and their partners at the mercy of Putin and Assad, as they now seek protection from advancing Turkish forces.

Nearly 300,000 Kurds, Christians, and Arabs have been displaced and more than 700 people have been killed in the conflict which has also placed the anti-ISIS campaign at risk and made the escape of 1000s of ISIS prisoners from SDF-run detention camps in eastern Syria a real possibility. Alongside the Turkish military, radical jihadist fighters backed by Turkey have committed numerous war crimes, including the brutal murder of female Syrian Kurdish politician, Hevrin Khalaf.

Despite the U.S.-Turkish ceasefire agreement, Turkey and its proxies continue to bombard and invade areas outside the safe zone and Turkish President Erdogan has continued to reiterate his intention to ‘cleanse’ the area of local inhabitants. Confusion also persists over the implications of the recent US decision to redeploy a small number of U.S. forces back into eastern Syria to protect oil resources there.