Letter to Mr. Anthony Blinken over Turkish threats to Syria's Kurds

Dr. Amir Sharifi | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Dear Mr. Anthony Blinken , The U.S Secretary of State :

As a Kurdish American, I am deeply concerned about the Turkish escalating assaults on Kurdish civilians and our allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Scores of innocent civilians have been killed and the vulnerable infrastructure including schools, hospitals, and power plants in Northeast Syria (NES) have been targeted and bombed while Turkish preparations for ground offensive are under way.

I and other Kurdish Americans are closely watching developments and the US senators’ and representatives’ reactions to these assaults. Nevertheless, we are dismayed at the insufficiency and lack of decisiveness on behalf of the U.S administration. This is not how we show our respect and gratitude to those who valiantly, with help from us, fought and defeated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) at a time that Erdogan was praying for the victory of ISIS against the entire world.

From 2019 on, Turkey has used any groundless excuse including the last baseless pretext of an explosion in Turkey to occupy, terrorize, and ethnically cleanse the entire area in NES. Human rights organizations have documented how both Turkish military and the Jihadist forces have wreaked havoc in in cantons such as Afrin and other places. We have all seen haunting images of rape, kidnapping, intimidation, destruction of homes, deforestation, and pillage of the area.

Syrian kurds flee Afrin city after Turkish assault — Syrian Kurds flee after Turkish-backed fighters captured Khaldieh village in eastern Afrin, Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) on March 10, 2018. Photo: Reuters

As you know, SDF has been able to build a broad-based democracy in which all religious and ethnic minorities feel empowered and represented; (NES) is a region that for the first time in history has put into practice gender equity and shown us how the political and cultural power of liberated women lays the foundation of parity and humanism in the Middle East.

We urge you to stop this ferocious aggression as you have rightfully done so in Ukraine. Kurdish people and other ethnicities who are descendants of family survivors of genocidal campaigns by Turkey have gained some basic rights and continuity for the first time.

The U.S with losing the Kurds would lose any influence and presence in Syria for decade to come and turns Syria into a domain of influence for Russia, Syria, and Iran. Different ethnicities and religions in NES have fought for and gained basic fundamental freedoms at least as much if not longer. As we strive to defeat ISIS and develop new ways of ending their anachronistic and repressive ideology, we wonder why the U.S administration does not stop the Turkish state that has continued to threaten the Western world and civilization with its fundamentalist and Islamist ideology. Any capitulation to the dictatorial regime of Turkey has grave implications for us.

Kurdish YPJ/SDF female fighters guards Islamic State suspects — Syrian Kurdish YPJ/SDF female fighters guard Islamic State suspects and civilians who escaped ISIS, March 14, 2019. Photo: ANF

We have survived the serious threat of ISIS, but more than 11,000 people in NES lost their lives to bring this relative peace about. Neither we nor you want to see what has befallen areas in NES under the siege of Turkey and its Jihadist forces.

The lack of international legitimacy not afforded to SDF has aggravated the situation and emboldened Turkey. As a Kurdish American I believe that the U.S government made the right decision to support SDF in its anti-ISIS campaign in pursuing world peace and stability.

Turkey again is threatening this relative stability and sabotaging the war against ISIS. NES faces an existential threat, an ethnic genocide as publicly announced by Erdogan. A humanitarian catastrophe is inevitable- continuing massacres, a forced migration of displaced people, ethnic cleansing, environmental devastation, resurgence of ISIS unless we halt Turkey, and its second largest army in the world.

As Kurdish Americans we do not want to be a generation of democrats and republicans without democracy. American tradition calls for taking care of those who took care of us. You can hardly find a democrat or a republican who is not pleased with the global role that Women’s Protection Unites (YPJ) and Men’s Protection Units (YPG) have played in defeating ISIS.

The US has to be more resolute and explicit in using sanctions to halt the Turkish attacks before hundreds of thousands of defenseless and innocent people have to endure incalculable suffering and displacement in the midst of possible ISIS resurgence. It is our moral responsibility and constitutional commitment and vision to halt Turkish continuing intervention, erosion and or erasure of religious and ethnic identities in Northeast Syria or Rojava.

Cordially

Petition Link:
https://chng.it/PcWkWJCDTJ

Dr Amir Sharifi, Co-Director of the Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group ( KHRAG), Los Angeles.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.