This is not a ceasefire - it is an ethnic cleansing in northern Syria.

This is not a ceasefire - it is an ethnic cleansing in northern Syria.
Last night, the news came that the US and Turkey had negotiated an agreement for Turkey to pause its offensive for five days.



Immediately after the agreement, President Trump wrote a tweet thanking President Erdoğan, stating that millions of lives will be saved.

Immediately, media began to report that a ceasefire was entered into northeastern Syria.

But what is it really about agreements that have been signed? And what lives are there to be saved?
Every time I hear the word ceasefire in war, I get scared. This is usually called for two reasons:

1) In order to disproportionately kill many civilians and to avoid the damnation of the outside world, a humanitarian corridor for evacuation is set up, which was called for yesterday in a call from the Kurdish medical side to the International Red Cross. This has happened several times before in both Syria and Iraq when very many civilians have been bombed and pictures of it have leaked.

2) In military language, ceasefire means that the side that proclaims it needs to regroup and make up a new strategy for its offensive. After that, the attacks usually become even more powerful than they were when paused.

And it is precisely an agreement on a break that has been concluded - not an end to Turkey's operation or the war.
13 points of the agreement
In the 13-point agreement, it is worded that: "the Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Source to enable the withdrawal of the YPG from the security zone within 120 hours."

It further states that it should: "include the withdrawal of the YPG's heavy weapons and the dissolution of their reinforcements and all other combat positions".

At the same time, Turkey went out and said that the operation will continue after the break and that if they are attacked during these five days they will go to counter-attack, which has already happened when fighting resumed in the morning east of Ras al-Ain - unclear which side started.

The agreement has been made over the head of both the Kurdish-led Alliance forces SDF - which includes the Kurdish forces YPG - and President Bashar al-Assad. Neither the United States nor Turkey have the right to rule over Syria, and yet these two parties have made an agreement on Syria - where the United States grants Turkey the right to take part of northeastern Syria, in addition from a former ally to the United States.
Bashar al-Assad has not agreed to this. He said yesterday that Turkey is a fascist government and that their invasion is an occupation and that Syria will use whatever legal means the country has to answer this.
SDF commander Mazlum Kobani said late last night that their forces have only agreed to a ceasefire in the confined area between the cities of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad - not at all in the area covered by the US-Turkey agreement - and that the SDF have agreed to this because many civilians have lost their lives in the last nine days and because thousands of people have been expelled from their homes. He emphasized that no demographic change will be allowed - another word for ethnic cleansing - and that those who have moved must be allowed to return to their land and to their homes.

He said explicitly that no SDF forces will withdraw from areas other than where the humanitarian disaster is now going on between Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad and that Turkey's target with the attacks may never be achieved: “Nothing has been discussed regarding other areas. Our forces will remain there. "
 In Turkey, there are many Syrian refugees today. According to Turkey itself, by now entering northern Syria, they want to create a security zone where refugees can be placed.
• Turkey also does not want to see Kurdish autonomy along its borders. Kurdish forces in Syria are part of the PKK, a group that is the terrorist stamp of the EU, among others. The PKK has been fighting against Turkey for decades.
• That Turkey should launch an offensive was expected, but that it started just last Wednesday is due to Donald Trump on Sunday, October 6, making a decision that surprised many.
• He then withdrew US soldiers in the area, which many interpreted as green light for Turkey to enter the area.
Attacking hospitals is a war crime
Neither the Kurdish-led forces SDF nor President Bashar al-Assad have approved the agreement between the United States and Turkey.

Furthermore, upon closer examination of this agreement, the 13 points appear as a plan for ethnic cleansing - not for a long-term ceasefire.

Yesterday in the middle of the day, the chief physician Dr. Hassan at the only operating hospital in Teltamer, where they received injuries from the road going to Ras al-Ain, announced that Turkish-backed militia closed off this road, that the injured were surrounded and stuck during the bombings and that the hospital's attempt to evacuate injured civilians has been halted by Turkish air raids.

It was at this point that the Kurdish health side turned to the International Red Cross with an official and urgent request for help in getting the injured out.

Proportionately attacking civilians during an offensive is a violation of the laws of war. In addition, following the appeal to the outside world, the situation of the injured civilians deteriorated further.

In the afternoon, while the US and Turkey were negotiating the agreement, reports came that the Ras al-Ain hospital had been attacked by Turkish-backed militia and / or bombed by Turkey. Kurdish political leader Xelil Aldar has confirmed the information about the hospital attacks in the Kurdish television channels Sterk and Kurdistan 24.

As of yesterday afternoon, the civilians have no access to health care.
Attacking a hospital is always a war crime under international humanitarian law. Even if one side's soldiers are in a hospital, the other side is not entitled to attack - as soon as a combatant is wounded and seeks care, protection status prevails.

Even in extreme situations when hospitals are completely taken over by a party to the conflict, which was not the case with the Ras al-Ain hospital, everyone in the hospital must be notified in time and given the opportunity to evacuate before an attack.

Therefore, an investigation needs to be done to clarify whether Turkey has been guilty of serious war crimes in Ras al-Ain.

Injuries that many civilians have also led to suspicions that white phosphorus has been used.

The Kurds will not be able to defend themselves
Further troublesome information is black and white in the US-Turkey agreement. What it says is that the YPG should withdraw and disarm and their reinforcements should be destroyed. It does not say SDF but just YPG.

The YPG is the Kurdish part of the SDF - an alliance that includes Arabs, Assyrians / Syrians and Yazidis, among others.

YPG is the Kurdish regional defense force in northeastern Syria - Rojava. The female defense forces are called YPJ.

It was YPG and YPJ that started fighting IS in cities like Kobane. SDF, Syrian Democratic Forces, was first formed when the United States came and gave its support to them during the war against IS - a change that was primarily a change of name to allow the US to arm and support Kurdish forces at all.

By adding the word democracy, they could escape Turkey's objections to the Western world.

But now both the United States and Turkey demand that the Kurdish forces surrender their heavier weapons and retreat south to areas where they are also not allowed to defend themselves.

On flat land without tunnels and arms, armed with only guns and Kalashnikovs, it will be easy for Turkey to knock them out.

To clean them out.

To commit ethnic cleansing.

Trump: "It's tough love"
Turkey hates Kurdish armed forces is a historical fact, but why the US agrees to this is hard to determine. Their main enemy in the region is Iran and they have always supported Sunni extremist militias in proxy war against Iran, Shiite Iran-backed militias and Russia, so an answer could be that they want to make northeastern Syria Sunni Arabs to have a buffer zone against the Shiites, Iran and the other eastern bloc.

The land here in northeastern Syria in Rojava thus constitutes a game of chess for the great powers.

President Trump just said in a speech that sometimes you have to let them fight - "sometimes you have to let them fight" - that it is unconventional but that they need to know how hard it is to fight. Earlier he said that they have a lot of sand to play with.

Now he says it's like having children.

That sometimes you have to make them quarrel.

That it is tough love.
The tough love gets children who burned Muhammad, 13, of whom we published pictures and videos of yesterday, now receive.

The Turkish-backed Islamist militias are attacking and killing, at the time of writing, people trying to evacuate wounded who do not reach any form of care in or near Ras al-Ain.

These militias are not included in the agreement either, so their killing can only put Turkey away and claim that it is not regular Turkish soldiers committing any war crimes.

It is another feature of using proxy forces.

Turkish militia is now a hundred meters from the Ras al-Ain hospital.

There is no ceasefire in northeastern Syria.
The Kurds have NEVER had a recognized state
About 25-35 million ethnic Kurds live in the mountainous areas of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia, but they have never had an internationally recognized state.

Between 7 and 10 percent of Syria's population is Kurdish (an estimated 1.6 to 2.3 million people).

For decades, Syrian Kurds have been oppressed by President Bashar al-Assad and before him, by his father, Hafez.

Prior to the rebellion against Assad, which started in 2011, most Kurds lived in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo as well as in three areas up north in close proximity to the Turkish border - Afrin in the west, Kobane (Ain al-Arab) in the middle and Qamishli in the east.

So you can help those affected in Syria
Save the Children:
Available on site with staff in three different refugee camps. There they help children with roof over their heads, food and other emergency care. The organization is also preparing to increase its efforts in the area.

Swisha any amount to 900 6008 and mark the gift FUTURE. Alternatively transfer any amount to Bankgiro 092-0033 or Plusgiro: 90 2003-3.

UNICEF:
On site inside Syria and giving the children life-saving help. UNICEF has stepped up its efforts and provides the children and their families with nutrition, health care, clean water and sanitation.

Swisha any amount to 902 00 17 or transfer any amount to Bankgiro 902-0017 or Plusgiro 90 20 01-7.

UNHCR
Works in a place where, among other things, they distribute emergency aid in the form of food and water, warm blankets and clothes, and gives children on the fly the opportunity to go to school.

Swisha optional sum to 90 01 645. Alternatively, transfer any amount on bank giro 90 0-16 45, or plus giro 90 01 64-5.

MSF:
Doctors Without Borders helps pressured hospitals with limited resources. According to the organization, there are teams in place in Ain Al Arab (Kobane), Ain Issa, Al Mallikeyeh (Derek), Tal Tamer, Tal Kosher, Al Hol and Raqqa.

Swisha any amount to 900 60 32 or transfer any amount to Bankgiro: 900-6032 or Plusgiro: 900603-2.

Red Cross / Red Crescent
The Red Cross / Red Crescent is in place in northeastern Syria, distributing food, water, blankets and other relief. The organization also has a field hospital, mobile clinics and ambulances in the area.

Swisha optional amount to 123 000 4648

Swedish Church:
Act The Swedish Church is part of the ACT Alliance, which is one of the world's largest aid alliances. They work in the long term with development cooperation and provide the most support where the needs are greatest.

Swisha any amount to 900 12 23 or transfer any amount to Bank giro: 900 1223 or Plus giro: 90 01 22-3.
https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/magda-gads-dagbok/detta-ar-ingen-vapenvila-det-ar-en-etnisk-rensning/