November 20, 2019
Panel discussion: Repairing the Damage: The future of U.S. relations with Syrian Kurdish partners and the fight against ISIS
Thank you very much for that kind introduction and to the organizers at the Washington Kurdish Institute for inviting me here. A lot has already been said, but I want to make a few points that I think we’ve not spoken about so far. So the previous, my esteemed colleagues and speakers have spoken about how this Turkish incursion that began on October nine has displaced approximately 300,000 people from the border between the borderlands of Northern Syria where the Turkish back militias operate under the umbrella of the Syrian national army, which include groups that are known for their brutality, including Ahrar al Sharqia, Jayesh al Islam, Sultan Murad, al Jabha al Shamiya, Hamza brigade, and others. On October 12, Havrin Khalaf, a Kurdish female politician and head of the Syria future party was captured and executed by Ahrar al Sharqia. Amnesty international referred to her murder and other summary executions as war crimes.
In recent testimony, Syria Envoy, ambassador James Jeffrey acknowledged that the state department was investigating war crimes in the plural committed by Turkey and Turkish backed rebels. And in elite memo that was reported by the New York times, Ambassador William Robeck, the top American diplomat on the ground working in Northern Syria wrote, and I quote, “Turkey’s military operation in Northern Syria, spearheaded by armed Islamist groups on its payroll represents an intentioned laced effort at ethnic cleansing.” On October 17, a ceasefire was negotiated when Vice President Pence and secretary of state Pompeo were dispatched to Ankara and the ceasefire agreement was presented as an accomplishment because it ended at purported to end the Turkish military operations. However, it did not. In fact, Turkey has violated this ceasefire agreement multiple times. Turkey has also violated the agreement that they made with Russia as Senator Van Hollen mentioned.
And what happened in the ceasefire agreement on October 17, is that a swath of land, for those of you who are not familiar with the geography of Northern Syria, this swath of land is between Tal Abyad and Ras al Ain, or Sari Kani in Kurdish. Now, this was presented by President Trump and others as a success because it meant a ceasefire Turkey actually only referred to as I believe as pause of operations So they didn’t even actually call it a ceasefire. But what this agreement actually did was it essentially meant that this swath of land, that more sovereign Syrian territory has essentially been ceded to Turkey. And part of this territory, including Ras al Ain was in fact the second deadliest site of the Armenian genocide.
So one century after the Armenians were killed in the genocide, with the house of representatives has just recognized the ancestors and the descendants of those genocide survivors are now once again, fleeing from Turkey and Turkish backed-extremists. When President Erdgoan visited the white house last week, President Trump failed to mention the ethnic cleansing campaign and he failed to mention the assault on the descendants of the Armenian genocide survivors. So in 1915 long-held fears of territorial dismemberment and anti-Armenian sentiment led the Ottoman Turkish government to launch a brutal campaign against its Armenian population who were killed, forced into Muslim household or deported into remote areas to perish. Ras al Ain became one of 25 concentration camps where deported Armenians from Anatolia or settled temporarily. Then in 1916 the Ottoman government ordered the massacre of Armenians in two major camps Ras al Ain and Deir Ez Zor is the other, were an estimated 70,000 Armenians Ras al Ain alone, not including Deir Ez Zor, an estimated 70,000 Armenians were killed by Turkey and their militias. There were buried in mass graves or just left an open fields and not buried at all. The bones, the victims can still be found today. Those who survived put down roots in the area which enabled a multie-thnic society to develop in Northeastern Syria. The current cross border operation however, seeks to change these dynamics permanently. Houses owned by Armenians as well as other Christian and Kurdish families are being looted by Turkish-back militias taken by Jabhat al Shamaya has been scrolled on the Gates of their homes to signal to other Turkish commanded militias that the property has already been confiscated.
Since the start of the Turkish assault known as operation Peace Spring, over 200 civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. All of the estimated 30 to 40 Armenian families living in this region recently ceded to Turkey have fled. Armenians are also now under attack by the Islamic state. Recently, Pastor Abraham Bedoyan and his father were killed by ISIS gunmen while traveling to Deir Ez Zor to restore an Armenian Catholic church.
What I would like to propose now are a few recommendations for how we could move forward because the current status quo I think is unacceptable.
First, the United States needs to have a team, the ground monitoring the situation, documenting the abuses, documenting these work crimes and documenting the other violations that are being committed. The United States should also establish a fact finding commission to study the connections between Turkey and the Islamic state. Why were thousands of ISIS militants allowed to travel back freely, back and forth between Turkey and Syria for years? Why was Baghdadi found just three miles from the Turkish border? This independent fact finding commission, I believe should also include a delegation, perhaps some members of Congress could join us to visit Afrin and the other regions of Northern Syria that are currently occupied by Turkey. Because if Erdogan is actually proud of what he’s doing and thinks that it’s a model that he wants to continue now in this new land that’s been ceded to him between Ras al Ain and Tal Abyad should welcome a delegation from the United States. He should welcome scholars and journalists and members of Congress to come and see what they’re doing. Why not? I conducted a survey of the Syrian democratic forces, copies of it outside, I was given access by the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) and the SDF to all six regions of Northeastern Syria that are under their control. So there is nothing to hide. They allowed me to conduct my research. They allowed me to do my work as a scholar, as an academic. So Turkey should also allow academics and journalists access to their regions that they control. If they’re proud of what they’re doing, and if they think what they’re doing is in accordance with international human rights laws, then please allow a delegation from the United States to visit Afrin, Ras al Ain, Tal Abyad and the other areas that are currently under the Turkish control.
I also believe that we need to seriously consider a mechanism for border security. This could be based for example, if we’re thinking in the future on something along the lines of the multilateral force, the MFO [Multinational Force and Observers] that has successfully protected the border between Egypt and Israel since 198. The German Minister of Defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer suggested a security mechanism that would include Russia and Turkey to protect the border. Now the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State, as I’m sure all of you know, it includes 81 countries. So it shouldn’t be the United States alone but together with those 81 countries, we should be able to find a way to protect the border between Turkey and Syria, that does not include simply ceding land from Syria to Turkey. Finally, the United States needs to pressure the United nations to include the Syrian Democratic Council in the negotiations in Geneva. It is unacceptable that one third of Syria is excluded from the talks about the future of Syria. So in addition to our continued cooperation with the SDF, we also need to pressure for their political inclusion in order to find a resolution to the future of the Syrian conflict. And that can only be done if all members of Syrian society are included in these talks in Geneva. And that includes the self administration of Northeast Syria. Thank you.