UN is under obligation to stop further Turkish military attacks against Kurds of Syria

UN is under obligation to stop further Turkish military attacks against Kurds of Syria

Abdul-Qahar Mustafa  | Exclusive to Ekurd.net

After Turkish military and its proxy Islamist forces had taken control of Kurdish city Afrin, Recap Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would expand its military operation in Syria to other cities such as Minbij, Kobane, and Qamishli as far as the Iraq border in the east, until Sinjar town in north of Iraq. This means Turkish military will invade more Kurdish regions and displace and kill more Kurdish people in Syria and Iraq. However, the presence of USA forces in Manbij city in Syria has made the Turkish military mission difficult as Turkish military might end up putting the lives of USA forces in danger during its shelling and airstrike bombardment on the city of Manbij.

Both Secret and public talks have been going on between Turkey and USA in this regard. Turkey seems to be ready to even pay America in order to convince USA to remove its forces from the area and open space for Turkish military to continue its campaign against Kurds of Syria. So far USA has sent out mixed signals to the world public in this regard. USA is mostly saying that they will not remove its troops from Manbij, while people have seen how USA kept quite when Turkey came in and started bombing Kurdish areas in Afrin city where no interests of USA was at risk of being hurt in the conflict.

While Turkey is insisting to convince USA to get out of the way and let Turkey continue its military action against YPG and PKK forces in Syria and Iraq, millions of Kurds are waiting to see if USA will give up Kurds of Syria for Turkey and will abandon them. They are closely watching the development to find out whether the USA will pull back its forces when Turkey starts shelling and bombing Kurds in the city of Minbij. Many more Kurds are wondering and asking questions as to why Bashar Assad is not doing anything to confront and stop Turkish military from bombing Syrian towns and its Kurdish citizens.

Fortunately, the truth of the matter has surfaced to many Kurdish people including me as why the government of Bashar Assad is not defending its land and Kurdish citizens. The answer is because Syria and Iran have already made a secret deal with Turkey to come in with free Syrian army and fight Kurds until they make Kurds and its military wing YPG surrender to Bashar Assad government or to free Syrian army or run away from Syria.

Iran has made a secret deal with Turkey based on conditions that Turkey should help Iran to bypass international sanctions, keep its door of trade open for Iran to help Iran survive the international sanctions. The deal also holds Turkey back to refrain from supporting opposition groups to fight against Assad government. This means Bashar Assad and his followers will survive the war and remain in power.

Obviously when Bashar Assad survives the war that means the allies of Bashar Assad government such as Hezbollah of Lebanon and Hamas of Palestine will survive too. However, the deal in return holds and commits Iran to meet demands of Turkey. Turkey has demanded Iran and Bashar Assad to first, control and deny Kurdish of Syria autonomy and self-rule in Kurdish regions of Syria. Turkey has also demanded Iran to pressure Iraqi Shia government to keep Iraqi Kurds under control and stop them through economic punishments and incentives to stop working on any projects of independence or if they work against the interests of Turkey in any possible way in north of Iraq.

In fact, Iran pull the strings in Damascus and Assad is just its puppet because Iran feeds and protects him. Iran has spent billions of dollars to keep Assad survive. Iran paid off all the bills of Assad, starts from buying weapons from Russia for his army to funding the war to renting Russian forces to protect Assad from getting killed by rebels

Basically Iran will hold Bashar Assad back from attacking Turkmen and Sunni Muslims population of Syria. Both Iran and Turkey are trying to share influence and political power indirectly and through their proxies in the future of Syria, but without Kurds. Their plan for Kurds is to divide, control and merge them with Sunni and Shia Alawit community of Syria through political and military pressure, carrot and stick approaches, covert techniques of discrimination and assimilation programs.

It is so clear that the interests of Turkey and Iran have aligned in Syria that is the reason Turkey has entered Syria with confidence and bombed its Syrian Kurdish citizens without facing any resistance from Bashar Assad army. Although, Turkey and Iran deny having such a secret deal. They are covering it up by using different excuses. Assad and Iran are covering up the secret deal by pretending that they are against Turkish military operation in Syria. Whereas in reality Bashar Assad has enough military power to confront Turkish military and stop them from advancing more into Syrian soil but they deliberately choose to not do so as it will go against the terms of the secret deal made between Turkey and Iran.

On the other hand, Turkey is justifying its military attacks against Kurds of Syria by misusing the UN principles of Self-Defense and Responsibility of Protection, which it means Turkey, has entered Syria supposedly to protect Turkmen and Sunni Arabs from the aggression and oppression of Kurds. While in reality Turkey has gone to Syria to drive Kurds out of their regions and prevent them from having a democratic autonomous region in Syria. Turkey basically has set three options for Kurds in Syria. It wants Kurds to either leave their area along Turkish border or surrender to free Syrian army rebels or face death.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Istanbul, June 25, 2017. Photo: Reuters

It is such a big lie mixed with a little truth made by Erdogan when he says Turkish army entered Syria to protect people from Kurdish terrorists. If Erdogan is such an honest, humane, sympathetic, righteous and responsible person who wishes justice, democracy, freedom and equal human rights for all people of Syria then why he is supporting one group against the other in the conflict of Syria? And why is he driving Kurds out of their homes and replacing them with his friends? Why is he so against the idea of a federal autonomous region in north of Syria where Kurds, Turkmens and Sunni Arabs would live together peacefully and side by side just as Turkmen, Assyrian, Kurds and many Sunni Arabs families live together peacefully and side by side in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq? One reason is Erdogan and his Wahhabi Turkmen and Sunni Arabs, who are loyal to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, see Kurds as infidels because Kurds believe in freedom, liberal democracy, and equal rights which are completely opposite to the extreme Wahhabi ideology of Turkmen and Sunni Arabs that Erdogan has been supporting and protecting in Syria.

Furthermore, Turkey claims that it has started its military operation on Kurds of Syria because he thinks they are terrorists and they violate its border security along with Syria. This is again a poor excuse to justify its aggression against Kurds because YPG fighters are against extreme ideologies and terrorism and they have proved by fighting ISIS terrorists. YPG fighters are people of Syria and sons and daughters of Kurdish families and communities in Syria. They are people of the land and have the right to live in Syria and defend their families, their land and their countries against anyone who tend to harm them, their families, their rights, their regions and their country. Therefore, Mr. Erdogan is using the excuse of terrorism to covertly enslave Kurdish population in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

The excuse that Turkey has made regarding its national security is supposedly in danger by Kurds, is absolutely lame and not good enough to justify a full scale campaign stares from secret operations at intelligent agency level abroad against Kurds to the arrests, kidnaping and assassination of Kurdish prominent leaders to the arrests of Kurdish intellectuals and political activists, and to lunching military action against Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

If Turkey is hurting Kurds because of its border security concerns, then there is a peaceful alternative to secure its border without the need for launching a preemptive military operation against Kurds. Instead of losing lives and wasting millions of dollars on military operation, Turkey could have saved many lives, and a lot of money by building an advanced border security system with Syria and Iraq, rather than going for a war with Kurds.

Turkey is rich enough to build an advanced and affective security system along its border with Iraq and Syria. It can secure its borders by building more border observation towers, 24-hour video surveillance systems, by using mobile video surveillance systems, ground and infrared sensors, and handheld infrared and night-vision systems. In addition to that, there thousands of other border-enforcement tools such as radiation sensors, license plate readers of cars and so forth. It can also use helicopters, drones and ground radar systems to detect and follow people traveling on foot, as well as cars that go through its borders.

Turkish-led forces destroyed the Kurdish statue of Kawa in the centre of Kurdish Afrin city in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), March 18, 2018. Photo: AFP

Mr. Erdogan should be ashamed of himself for his lies and deceptive excuses. He must stop hurting poor Kurdish people in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. He should drop the megalomaniac and sadistic mentality of his forefathers Gangis and, Kublai khan, the sick mentality of conquering, looting and enslaving people of other ethnicities such as Greeks Cypriots and Kurds. There is absolutely no pride and heroism in looting, enslaving and killing weak, poor and defenseless people. Although, I see Erdogan almost every day on the stage proudly bragging about his achievements in arresting, displacing and killing poor and oppressed Kurds. Only a coward person would bully and hurt weak people. The real brave man never bully weaker than himself, but would rather goes to pick up a fight with a stronger bully.

We still remember how Israelis killed your citizen and captured your Mavi Marmara cargo ship in Gaza, Palestine, but Erdogan and his army wouldn’t dare to lay not even a finger on Israel. And why, because Israel is not only a nuclear state but also has the whole western world behind its back. This clearly proves that Erdogan and his army men are coward bullies who wouldn’t dare to fall out with strong but only bully and hurt weak people like Kurds.

I am sure that if Kurds had some strong defensive technology and weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles or jet fighters, Turkey wouldn’t dare to attack them. However, Turkish military have conducted military operation against Kurdish guerrilla in north of Iraq many times before, but those military operation did not result in eliminating Kurds. They only resulted in not only into loss and devastation for both Kurds and Turks but also didn’t bring about any permanent peace between Kurds and Turkish state. Turkey should learn a lesson from its past mistakes and avoid repeating them. If Turkey continues its military attacks against Kurds in more Kurdish villages, towns and cities, there is a high chance that it will put the lives of its citizens in danger all around the world.

Most of the Kurds who have been killed by Turkish army and its Islamic proxy allies in Afrin, have children, relatives and sympathizers in north of Iraq and many other western countries. These people have developed strong feelings of hate and anger towards Turks after Turkish military killed their beloved once in Afrin city in Syria. It will take only few of them to suddenly in one night carry out a suicidal mission in north of Iraq, and kill hundreds of Turks or Turkmen as a revenge for what Turkish military did to their beloved once. There is also a high potential of clashes between Kurds and Turkish communities in Europe over the Turkish military aggression against Kurds of Syria. This means Erdogan has put the lives of not only Turkish citizens its small military bases in north of Iraq, but also many other minority Turkmen in danger all around the world especially in Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Kurdish people have suffered a lot at the hands of Arabs, Turks and Shia Persians all along the history and they still do up to this moment. Many of them have been killed by Arabs, Turks and Shia Persians. Some died from cold on mountains, some out of hunger and homelessness and many more of them have migrated to western countries for the fear of being killed by those cruel regimes. Some made it but some have stepped on border mines while some others have drowned in seas and did not make it to a safe place. Many of them have also been tortured to death in prisons of intelligent services of Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Their homes were destroyed by bombs of Turkish, Iranian Shia Syrian and Saddam militaries. Their families have shattered their children were raped and killed. And last but not least thousands of Kurds were killed by chemical weapons and in wars with terrorists.

It is so sad to see that the children of Kurds have fallen behind from the rest of the world in many ways. We see that the children of many nations around the world have become scientists, and prominent doctors, pilots and engineers while many children of Kurds remained illiterate and they work only as farmers and shepherds just so to survive. And worse than that the Kurdish regions are still under developed. Kurdish people have suffered from poverty wars and economic recessions and they still do up to this moment, while people of other nations have developed their countries and they have lived happily in peace, security and prosperity.

UN Security council members are obliged to stop wars, promote peace and democracy all around the world. It must treat international disputes neutrally and based on principles of justice regardless of power status, economic interests, alliance and friendships of countries. It should stop any further Turkish military operations against Kurds. It should come up with a plan of peace for Kurds.

I believe if UNSC especially USA work to convince YPG to distance itself and drop any sorts of PKK connection similar to how Kurdistan regional government (KRG) does in Iraq it will very much help to prevent Turkey from continuing its military operation against Kurds in Syria. USA can also starts taking back weapons from YPG fighters but strictly under the deal that USA will provide protection, amnesty and assurance of their lives and their democratic rights in the future Syria. This will also prevent Erdogan from having any justifiable ground to launch an operation in East of Euphrates. But a peace deal may hurt the big ego of Erdogan as it could cost him losing the title of Turkish national hero and the2019 elections. He would be seen as backing off from his nationalist promises by his supporters and audiences. However, the bully should not be allowed to launch wars, cause destruction, and kill people just so to boost his big ego and achieve his personal goals.

It is about time that UN Security Council stops Turkish military aggression against Kurds of Syria and work to for peace. It should make sure the democratic rights of Kurds are protected and guaranteed in Syria or else it (UNSC) will lose face and credibility in the civilized international community.

Abdul-Qahar Mustafa is a graduate student from Saint Louis high school in Canada. He is advocate of justice, democracy and human rights. He currently lives in Sarsang/Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan. Mustafa is a senior contributing writer for Ekurd.

The views expressed are the author’s alone and do not necessarily represent the views of Ekurd.net or its editors.

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