Washington Kurdish Institute
March 24, 2020
On March 11, the Department of State (DOS) released its annual Human Rights Practices report of Turkey highlighting, in diplomatic language, the Turkish government’s oppression and atrocities. The Kurds of Turkey have been disproportionately targeted by the oppressive policies of Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who now has virtually unchecked control over all of the country’s institutions. The DOS report states that “at least 4,920” members and lawmakers of the Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have been jailed since 2016. It discusses the ongoing imprisonment of prominent Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, the charismatic former co-leader of the HDP and presidential candidate who has been jailed since November 2016. The latest chapter in Erdogan’s crackdown on the Kurds began after he chose to end the peace process between the Kurds and the Turkish government in 2015. After a number of elections in Turkey conducted under various levels of pressure, including elections under emergency rule, Erdogan removed more than 120 elected Kurdish officials including mayors and other senior politicians. Erdogan’s aggression against the Kurdish people was not restricted to the political arena, or even to Turkey itself – he also launched repeated military strikes on the Kurds in Iraq and Syria. While international consensus formed that Erdogan was an authoritarian leader who was indeed playing a counterproductive role in the battle against the Islamic State (ISIS) and other jihadist groups, the global community, for the most part, refrained from intervening or even criticizing Erdogan’s acts of aggression and violations of basic human rights norms and international law.
Erdogan’s intervention in Syria has had disastrous consequences for all Syrians, Kurds and non-Kurds alike, who strived for freedom from the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. Erdogan claims that Syria is a national security for Turkey, though has, since the outbreak of unrest in the country, supported extremist jihadist groups in Syria which have spread throughout much of the country and committed large scale human rights violations. In various ways, Turkey has supported not only ISIS and al-Qaida–linked groups, but also a variety of other similar jihadist groups. He also rallied these terror groups to fight the Kurds and used them as mercenaries to invade Kurdish regions to achieve his own chauvinistic goals of driving the Kurdish people from their ancestral land. For example, two years ago, the Turkish military launched an unprovoked, large scale campaign against the Kurdish area of Afrin with the blessing of Russian, who had uncontested control of the airspace over and around Afrin. Since Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Afrin, the once peaceful region has been overrun by jihadists who loot the region and often violently clash with each other in the streets. Furthermore, other areas that have been occupied by Turkey, including parts of Idlib, Tel Abyad (Girê Spî), Jerablus, Serê Kaniyê (Ras al-’Ayn), and al-Bab have been further destabilized since Turkey and Turkey’s jihadist proxies took control of the areas. Erdogan’s military adventures in Syria have caused death and ruin for the peoples of Syria and Turkey.
On the other side of the aisle is the President of Syria, the dictator Bashar al-Assad, who bears chief responsibility for the death and displacement of millions of Syrians. Assad, like Saddam Hussein of Iraq, is a member of a wing of the Ba’ath Party, an ultra-nationalist, Arab supremacist party that calls for an Arab-led dictatorship. As in Iraq, the Kurds of Syria were targeted by a Ba’athist dictatorship that denied and sought to erase their identity. Like his father Hafez al-Assad, Bashar maintains the position of opposing the United States and their allies. Bashar al-Assad, like Saddam Hussein, does not hesitate to use chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction, against the peoples of the country he rules. With an eye on the future now that his power seems safe, Assad recently made comments about the Kurdish issue in Syria, doubling down on his persecution policies against the Kurds. The Syrian regime has long been a strong ally of the Iranian Islamic regime, functioning as a dependable pro-Iranian outpost in the region. Assad himself owes his continued survival not only to strong Russian military support, but also to the ongoing support and sacrifices of members of various Iranian-supported militias, including Hizbullah from Lebanon, various Shi’ite militias from Iraq, and even the Fatemiyoun Division, an Afghan Shi’ite militia organized and funded by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). At present, the Kurds of Syria, who are fighting for their very existence, are pressured by both Assad’s dictatorship and Turkey’s jihadist proxy groups. Neither side has demonstrated basic regard for human rights, and neither is prepared to even acknowledge and respect the existence of the Kurdish people of Syria.
After defeating the physical “caliphate” of ISIS, the Kurds endured brutal attacks by Turkey and their jihadist proxy forces following US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces from areas near the Syria-Turkey border to allow these attacks in October 2019. The Kurdish forces and their non-Kurdish allies, organized under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were suddenly abandoned by the US, and, after waves of airstrikes by Turkey, forced to retreat from a large swath of territory along the border. Nonetheless, the Syrian Kurds maintained their partnership with the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Despite being squeezed in between Russia, Iran, the Syrian regime, and Turkey, the Syrian Kurds were able to successfully maneuver and continue to execute anti-terror operations against ISIS and other jihadist groups in coordination with the coalition. Since the most recent Turkish invasion in October 2019, a new reality has been imposed on the Kurds – Russia is now the major world power in and around the Kurdish region and, while Russia coordinates with Turkey, the US maintains a decreased presence on the eastern side of the country.
The US-Kurdish partnership in Syria was a model for well-executed, targeted foreign intervention in the region. Because the Kurds were reliable allies, the US accomplished its strategic goals with very little presence and few casualties – incomparable to US military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. US personnel and international aid workers were safe in Kurdish-administered areas of Syria. The Kurdish forces, motivated by the desire to liberate and protect their homeland, were effective fighters. This was proven time and time again, from the liberation of Kobani in 2015 to the territorial defeat of ISIS last year.
It is difficult to argue against the assertion that a complete US withdrawal from Syria is contrary to US national interests. Placed in a difficult position by the US, the Kurds of Syria will likely look to Russia and Iran for clarity on the future of Syria. While the joint military operations with US forces continue against ISIS, the US also should support the Kurdish-led administration in attaining international recognition and aid, for many reasons including the moral obligation created through the immense sacrifices of the Kurds.
The Kurdish administration is hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians, but receives very little aid. In January, the UN Security Council sent humanitarian aid to Syria but ignored the Kurdish-administered regions, the North and East of Syria, completely. The US can certainly provide unilateral assistance to the Kurds through USAID and other groups, and such basic assistance, while incomparable to the aid that the US has given Turkey and other countries, would go a long way toward addressing a potential humanitarian crisis. North and East Syria is a relatively small region and has a working self-administration authority, so the US can work easily and efficiently with them to ensure transparent and effective distribution of aid.
In addition to the persistent need for food and medical supplies, the ongoing coronavirus crisis has introduced another factor that threatens to cause widespread death among the vulnerable IDP (internally displaced persons) population. Right now, testing kits, medical equipment, and medical grade cleaning supplies from the US and Europe would be vital for the impoverished region that faces not only ongoing military aggression but also an embargo. It is vital to keep the population in the region and the IDP camps as free of the coronavirus as possible. The US and the international community must realize that any additional turmoil in the region will lead to a near-term resurgence of ISIS. The Kurds have been calling the international community to set up an international tribunal to try imprisoned members of ISIS, and have simultaneously called on foreign countries to take back their citizens who had joined the terrorist group. For the most part, these calls have been ignored.
In the longer term, the US and NATO can provide more training and military equipment to the SDF to ensure that the lasting defeat of ISIS and similar terror groups. Syria, after many years of civil war, is now split into three major regions controlled by different foreign powers – the south and west controlled by Russia and Iran, the northwest controlled by Turkey and Turkey’s jihadist proxy forces, and the north and east under US influence. Any decision by the US to leave the region will undoubtedly have even more negative impact on US interests in the region, ceding an important regional outpost to either Russia and Iran, or to Turkey and jihadist groups. Either way, the US, and regional countries friendly with the US including Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, will face additional pressure from Syria.
The US, under the pressure of certain vocal lawmakers from both parties, salvaged some of their victory in Syria after President Trump’s decision to withdraw in October 2019. If this withdrawal is completed, America will lose a reliable ally in the region and will have very little hope of forming similar local alliances in the future.