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Mutlu Çiviroğlu: ABD, tarihindeki en önemli seçime hazırlanıyor
BasNews – ABD’nin 3 Kasım 2020 seçimleri dünya siyasetini etkilemesi bakımından bütün kesimler tarafından ilgiyle takip ediliyor.
Seçimlerde, Demokratların adayı Joe Biden’ın mı yoksa mevcut Cumhuriyetçi Başkan Donald Trump’ın mı seçileceği konusu ABD’nin iç ve dış siyasetinin şekillenmesi bakımından önemini koruyor.
Kürtler de ABD siyasetinin doğuracağı etkilerinden en fazla etkilenen halk olma bakımından bu seçime odaklanmış durumda. Donald Trump’ın Irak ve Suriye politikasızlığı nedeniyle Kürdistan Bölgesi ve Rojava Kürdistanı oldukça olumsuz etkileri oldu. Bu nedenle Kürtler çok ağır bedeller ödemek zorunda kaldı.
VOA’dan deneyimli gazeteci ve analizci Mutlu Çiviroğlu ile 8 Kasım 2016 yılı seçimlerinin 3 Kasım 2020 seçimlerinden farkını, adayların başarma şansını, ABD kamuoyunun beklentilerini, ABD seçimlerinin dünya, Ortadoğu ve Kürtlere etkisini konuştuk.
ABD’deki 3 Kasım 2016 seçimleri ile 3 Kasım 2020 seçimleri arasında ne gibi benzer ve farklı durumlar söz konusu?
8 Kasım 2016 seçimlerinde ABD tarihinde ilk kez bir kadın başkan adayı oldu. Bu seçimde ikinci defa bir kadın başkan yardımcı adayı olacak. Yine ilk kez hem siyahi hem göçmen olan birisi başkan yardımcısı adayı oluyor. Bunların dışında ABD’deki birçok siyasi gözlemciye göre bu seçim ABD tarihindeki en önemli seçimlerden birisi olacak. Çünkü buradaki en önemli husus Başkan Trump ve ekibi devam edecek mi, etmeyecek mi? Yine adayların her ikisi de ileri yaşta insanlar. Hem Trump’ın hem de Biden’in yaşları epey ileride. Dolayısıyla seçilecek başkan ABD tarihindeki en yaşlı başkanı olacak.
“ABD’de seçimler konusunda anket şirketleri de dahil uzman analistler temkinli yorumlarda bulunuyorlar”
8 Kasım 2016 seçimlerinde Trump bütün anketlerin aksine başkan seçildi. Son ana kadar Hillary Clinton’un seçileceğine kesin gözüyle bakılıyordu. Ama sonuç herkesi yanılttı. Şimdiki anketlerde de her ne kadar Biden önde görünüyorsa da netleşmiş hiçbir şey yok. Anket şirketleri de dahil uzman analistler temkinli yorumlarda bulunuyorlar. Adeta sütten dili yanan, yoğurdu üfleyerek yer misali. 2016’da sütten dili yananların sayısı epeydi. Şu an genel anlamda ele aldığımızda bir belirsizliğin söz konusu olduğunu söyleyebilirim.
“Yapılan anketlerin büyük çoğunluğunda Biden yüzde 5 ile 10 arasında değişen bir farkla önde görülüyor”
Yapılan anketlerin büyük çoğunluğunda Biden önde görülüyor. Yüzde 5 ile 10 arasında değişen bir fark olduğu belirtiliyor. Ama işte ABD seçim sisteminin çoğunlukla hiçbir alakası olmadığı için oy sayısı ne kadar fazla olursa olsun kazandığın delege sayısı eksik olduğunda seçimi kaybediyorsun. Yakın seçimde Hillary Clinton, Trump’tan çok fazla oy aldı ama kazanan delege sayısı az olduğu için başkanlığı kaybetti. Ve ABD’de var olan eyaletlerde kırmızı eyaletler Cumhuriyetçileri simgelerken, mavi Demokratları simgeliyor.
“ABD seçimlerinde pembe eyaletler sonucu belirliyor”
Seçim savaş alanı olarak kabul edilen 10 civarındaki pembe eyalet ise ABD’deki seçim sonuçlarını belirliyorlar. Bu pembe eyaletler içerisinde en belirleyici olanı da Florida eyaleti. ABD seçim sistemindeki diğer önemli bir fark, diyelim ki siz herhangi bir eyalette tek bir oyla farkla bile kazandıysanız oradaki bütün delegeleri siz kazanmış oluyorsunuz. Örneğin; Florida’daki delege sayısı 29’sa ve siz Florida’da tek bir oyla farkla kazandıysanız, 29 delege sandalyesinin hepsini siz kazanmış sayılıyorsunuz. ABD seçim siteminin bütün dünya ülkelerinden böylesine farklı ilginç bir sistemi var yani. İşte bu nedenle her ne kadar genel seçim istatistiğinde Biden önde görülüyorsa da bu eyalet delege seçim sistemi nedeniyle yarışı kimin kazanacağını şimdiden bilmek mümkün değil.
“Şu ana kadar 56 milyondan fazla insan mektup yoluyla oylarını kullanmış durumda”
Ayrıca ilk kez uzaktan seçim sistemi ya da mektupla oy kullanma yöntemiyle şu ana kadar 56 milyondan fazla insan oylarını kullanmış durumda. ABD tarihinde görülmemiş bir şekilde bu kadar erken ve yüksek katılım oldu demek abartılı olmaz. Çünkü halen seçimlere yaklaşık 8 gün kalmış olmasına rağmen 56 milyon insan posta yoluyla oylarını kullandılar. Yani insanlar 3 Kasım seçim gününü beklemek istemediler.
ABD anket şirketlerinin yaptığı çalışmalara göre, pembe eyaletlerde kim daha fazla önde görünüyor?
Pembe eyaletlerde yapılan anketlere göre Biden’in önde olduğu görülüyor. Özellikle Florida’da Biden’in önde olduğu belirtiliyor. Ama bilindiği gibi bütün anket şirketleri belirli bir yanılma payı bırakırlar. Ama yanılma paylarına rağmen pembe eyaletlerin hemen hemen büyük çoğunluğunda Biden’in önde gittiği görülmekte. Ama işte biraz öncede belirttiğim gibi, 2016 seçimlerinde anketlere göre Clinton pembe eyaletlerin çoğunda öndeydi ama bazı eyaletlerde son anda Trump çok küçük farklarla kazandı ve o eyaletlerin bütün delegelerini almıştı.
ABD’deki 2016 seçimlerine dışarıdan müdahalenin olduğu ve etki edildiği yönünde çokça spekülatif haber yapıldı. Gerçeklik payı var mı? Gerçekten müdahale edile bilinecek bir sistem mi?
Seçimlere dışarıdan müdahale etme imkanı olur mu bilemem ama her ihtimale karşı Amerikan kamuoyunun bu tür ihtimallere karşı çok temkinli hareket ettiği belirgin bir şekilde görülüyor. Birkaç gün önce İranlı bazı hackerlerin bazı girişimlerinin olduğu söylendi. Fakat bütün bunlar karşısında belli bir duyarlılık, tedbir alma ve önüne geçme yaklaşımlarının olduğu net bir şekilde görülmekte. Bunun haricinde genel anlamda hem halk nezdinde hem de sosyal medya bazın da seçimlere katılım konusunda bir teşvik etme kampanyası mevcut. Örneğin Twitter, Facebook, Tik tok vb. sosyal medya kurumları bile insanları seçimlere katılım konusunda teşvik etmek için özel çaba sarf ediyorlar. Özellikle yalan – yanlış ve spekülatif haberlerin yayılmaması için çok ciddi önlemler alınmış durumda.
Trump ya da Biden’in kazanması halinde Ortadoğu siyasetlerinde ne gibi farklılıklar görülecektir?
Trump’ın kazanması halinde mevcut süregelen siyasetin devam edeceğini bekleyebiliriz. Fakat Biden’in kazanması halinde, Obama’nın başkanlığı dönemindeki siyaset ya da ABD’nin klasik Ortadoğu siyasetine dönüşünün olması ihtimali bulunmakta.
Trump yürüttüğü siyasetle ABD’yi yeniden ulusallaştırmaya çalışıyor. Global dünyadan çekilerek Amerika’nın kaynaklarını Amerika içerisinde ve Amerika halkına kullanmayı esas alıyor. Trump’ın bu siyaseti ABD’nin global rolü ile çelişkili ve çatışmalı bir durum yaratıyordu. Oysa Biden kazandığı taktirde, ABD’nin uzun dönem yürüttüğü global siyasete dönüş tekrarlanacaktır. Yani 2’inci Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonraki dünyanın büyük abisi rolüne tekrar geri dönüleceği bekleniyor Biden’le beraber. Dolayısıyla bu siyasi yaklaşım NATO, Avrupa Dünyası, Birleşmiş Milletler vb. yerlerde yine eskisi gibi öne çıkan rolünü oynaması bekleniyor.
“Trump’ın seçilmesi halinde Erdoğan üzerinden yürüyen siyasal ilişki Türkiye açısından devam edecek”
Trump’ın tekrardan seçilmesi halinde, Trump ile Erdoğan üzerinden yürüyen siyasal ilişki Türkiye açısından devam edecek. Yani farklı bir beklentide olmak güç. Ama Biden seçilirse, Biden’İn son dönemlerde Erdoğan’a yönelik açıklamaları ve eleştirileri temelinde, yine Trump’ın geçen sene Rojava Kürdistanı’ndan çekilmeye yönelik aldığı kararlara ilişkin Biden’ın açıklamaları var ve bu açıklamalar temelinde hareket etmesi bekleniyor.
“Biden genel anlamda Kürtleri iyi bilen ve tanıyan bir siyasetçi “
Biden genel anlamda Kürtleri iyi bilen ve tanıyan bir siyasetçi. Yine senatör olduğu dönemlerde Irak’ın 3’e bölünmesini savunan birisiydi. Aynı şekilde Suriye siyasetinde Rojava Kürdistanı’nda Kürtlere karşı yapılanları haksızlık olarak gören bir tavra sahipti. Bu nedenle Biden’in seçilmesi halinde Kürtler açısından bazı beklentilerin doğacağı yönünde yaklaşımlar söz konusu. Ama baştan beridir söylediğim gibi, seçimin kim tarafından kazanılacağını kestiremediğimiz için bu yönlü spekülatif değerlendirmelere girmek istemiyorum. Ama kısaca söylediğim gibi Trump seçilirse mevcut yürütülen siyasete devam edileceği, Biden seçilirse ABD’nin geleneksel siyasetine geri döneceği bekleniyor. Ortadoğu içinde bu böyle, Biden’ın seçilmesi halinde, geri çekilme yerine Ortadoğu’da ki gücünü geliştiren ve perçinleyen bir siyasete tekrardan dönülmesi düşünülüyor.
Önceki seçim süreçlerinde adaylar arasındaki yarışta, dünyanın farklı bölgelerine yönelik siyasi yaklaşımlar yansırdı. Bu seçimlerde bu yaklaşım görülmüyor gibi. Amerikan kamuoyu açısından bu konuda bir netlik var mı?
Doğrusu ABD kamuoyunun gündeminde bu tür konular yok. Buradaki kamuoyu, dışarıdan bakıldığında sanki bütün dünya siyasetiyle ilgileniyormuş gibi algılanıyor ama öyle değil. Oysa Amerika halkının önceliği dünya siyaseti değil. Öncelikleri; örneğin sağlık sigortası, korona virüsten korunmak, işsizlik, ya da ABD sınırları dışına yönlendirilen iş gücünün tekrardan ABD’ye getirilmesi vb. sorunlar Amerikan kamuoyunu ilgilendiriyor. Dış siyaset sanıldığı kadar Amerikan toplumunun gündeminde değil.
“ABD’deki seçmen iç gündeme odaklı”
Bu seçimde bu daha fazla kendisini dayatmakta. Özellikle korona virüs salgınının en fazla ABD’yi vurması, son dönemlerde belirgin bir artış gösteren şiddet olayları, toplumsal gösteriler ve rahatsızlıklar, anayasa mahkemesine yeni bir yargıcın atanması gibi konular Amerikan halkının daha fazla ilgilendiği konular. Zaten mevcut ABD’deki Trump yönetiminin de yıllardır uğraştığı, Amerika halkını kendi kabuğuna çekme siyaseti ile ABD’nin uluslararası siyaseti zaten geriye çekilmişti.
“Trump’ın seçmen tabanı ABD’nin askerleri çekme kararından memnun”
Zaten Başkan Trump’ın açıklamalarını hatırlarsanız, Suriye’den askerleri çekme kararı alırken, neden biz Suriye çöllerinde kendi askerlerimizi bulunduruyoruz demişti. Neden bu kadar para harcıyoruz, bu kadar masraf yapıyoruz yaklaşımındaydı. Aynı mantıkla, Afganistan, ırak ve Almanya’ya da gösterildi. Oradan da askerler için çekilme kararı alındığında yaklaşım aynıydı. Zaten önceki seçim vaatlerinde, başkan olduğu taktirde dışarıda olan bütün askerleri evlerine getireceğini söylemişti ve bunu gerçekleştiriyor. Tabanı da bundan gayet memnun ve mutlu.
ABD’de 3 Kasım tarihinde gerçekleşecek seçimlerde, sonuçların hemen belirlenemeyeceği ve belli bir zamana sarkacağı söylentiler var. Böyle bir durumun yaşanması mümkün mü?
Tabi ki var. Şundan dolayı; ABD’nin birçok yerinde mektupla oy kullanılıyor. Yani 3 Kasım öncesi oy kullanabiliyorsunuz ama seçim tarihi dolmadan sayım işlemine başlayamıyorsunuz. Aynı şekilde oyların açılması ve sonuçların birbirine yakın olması halinde yurtdışından gelen oyların sayımlarının beklenmesi gerekiyor. O nedenle 3 Kasım gecesi hemen sonuçların netleşmeme ihtimali var. Ama diyelim ki bir adayın genel anlamda oy oranı ve delege sandalye sayısı diğerinden belirgin bir şekilde fazla ise zaten aynı gece durum netleşir ama değilse, dışarıdan gelen oylar ve yine sayılmamış diğer oylar netleşmeden belki öbür gün belki de 3 gün boyunca hiçbir aday kazandığını ilan edemeyebilir. Çünkü normal bir seçim ortamı ve yöntemi değil. Yani bugün seçim oluyor, siz gidip oy kullanıyorsunuz ve süre dolduktan sonra sayım başlıyor. Oysa bu seçim sisteminde en son mektuplar gelene kadar bekliyorsunuz ve sayım yönteminde de farklılık oluşuyor. Ama şu ana kadar seçim sistemi güvenliği konusunda ne kamuoyunda ne kurumlar bazında ciddi bir zafiyet olduğuna dair bir durum söz konusu değil.
https://www.basnews.com/tr/babat/643867
ISIS’s ‘caliphate’ was crushed. Now Syria’s Kurd-led alliance faces bigger battles
Reporting from shattered Syria in the dying days of the caliphate, Jared Szuba talks to Kurds and Arabs about the fight for their shared future
SDF fighters in Baghuz, Syria in March 2019. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
In the last days of Islamic State’s professed caliphate, under the cover of thunder and heavy rain, Coalition aircraft bombed an ammunition depot south of the Syrian village of Baghuz.
The detonation touched off a cluster of fires in the cult’s densely-inhabited encampment.
The next morning, more than one thousand of the remaining believers gathered at the foot of Mount Baghuz to surrender to the alliance of Syrian militias that surrounded them on three fronts. To their south lay the Euphrates riverbank, within range of the Syrian Arab Army across the water.
For weeks their tents had been raked with automatic fire, their zealous mujahideen picked off by the polished snipers of the predominantly Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Each night, their dugouts and shelters were slammed from all sides with American and French 155mm artillery and 120mm SDF mortars.
“Strike and wait, strike and wait,” a stocky Syrian Democratic Forces conscript told me at the base of the cliff. The progress was grueling. “We’re advancing, but can’t with the civilians in front,” he said.
Every few days the jihadists called for an evacuation, and the main assault halted. But sniper operations continued, cadre said, to prevent them from exploiting the quasi-ceasefire.
“They send the civilians out then they stay. We keep telling them, ‘Whoever doesn’t surrender, dies.’”
Behind him, a procession of black veils shuffled up the path, contrasting with the sandy bluff illuminated by the setting sun. They clung to dirty children, some crying.
A lanky teenager with a Kalashnikov gestured to the bags born by one of the black forms. Without hesitation, she jettisoned the luggage down the cliff.
“That’s the last group!” someone shouted in Arabic. A gang of fighters shouldered their rifles and jumped off sandbags, skidding and jogging down the gravel path towards the front. One told me to leave the area. “It’s going to begin again any minute.”
I legged it back to the van and climbed in. Half a football field ahead, two American-made Humvees bearing the yellow flag of the SDF squatted before of a one-story concrete home.
On the roof, silhouetted against the sun through palm fronds, two fighters extended the bipod of a PKM with casual proficiency. As we pulled away, the crackle of small arms fire broke out, then grew into a steady rhythm. A Dushka chugged away somewhere behind.
“Their resistance is softening,” said Haval Ahmed, my 20-year old escort.
“It’ll probably end within days.”
A YPJ fighter watches as people surrender to SDF colleagues in ISIS-held Baghuz, Syria in March 2019. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
The ground war against Islamic State has been declared finished. Coalition bombs are still pounding the last stragglers holed up under the south face of the cliff.
At a safe house a few kilometers north of the front, veteran SDF fighters told me Baghuz had been the most taxing fight of their war against ISIS.
“Honestly when we came here, we expected a big battle. But not these enormous numbers,” Mervan Qamishlo of the SDF’s Military Media Command said.
As we spoke, the ostensible caliphate that had once stretched nearly from Aleppo to Baghdad was being measured in square meters.
Already synonymous with savagery, the death cult nearly outdid itself in its last stand. Women and children returned fire on the SDF, an officer at the front said, and at least one surrendered mujahid said their leaders were withholding food from those who refused to fight.
The day after I arrived, a delegation of black-veiled suicide bombers mingled with the evacuees only to detonate among their own, wounding a handful of SDF guards.
Veteran jihadists from Anbar, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Turkey commanded the last of the believers, Mervan Qamishlo told me.
The hardened cadre had slipped past the Iraqi Army at Mosul and the YPG in Manbij, fled Raqqa and pulled back across the desert plain of Deir Ezzor, Hajin, and Sousa under catastrophic bombardment.
But if Daesh’s “elite” had concentrated in Baghuz, the same was true for their adversaries.
With every city the fanatics fled over the past four-and-a-half years, they surrendered thousands of their able-bodied survivors to a confederation of Western-backed militias that promised revenge, and a place in a new Syria.
SDF continues ISIS clearing operations inside Baghuz, Syria on March 20, 2019. Image: Mutlu Civiroglu/@mutludc/Twitter
Detachments from the YPG, its all-female counterpart the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), and the Syriac, Manbij, and Deir Ezzor Military Councils, as well as former Free Syrian Army factions such as the Liwa al-Shamal al-Dimokrati (Northern Democratic Brigade) and Jaysh al-Thuwar (Army of Revolutionaries), congregated for the final thrust of the war. (That SDF representatives in Baghuz could not account for all units participating signalled both the unity and urgency of their cause.)
Salih, a 20-year-old self-professed forward observer from Hasakah, had joined the YPG three years earlier “to fight terrorism.” We spoke on the roof of the house, overlooking miles of ruins that stretched from the Euphrates to the Iraq border.
After Baghuz, he said, he wanted “to go home.”
“We’ve finished the end of the road,” Salih, an Arab who previously had been affiliated with a Sunni rebel group, said. He stared over the sunlit battlefield with a sharp, empty gaze.
“This is the end of Daesh … We’ve liberated ourselves from terrorism inshahallah,” he said”We want a homeland so we can just live in security.”
For others, the fight was far from over.
Inside the house, a group of tired recruits just back from the front huddled on the floor scooping heaps hot rice and chicken from styrofoam trays.
I asked what they expected next after Baghuz. They hesitated, keeping their eyes on the food. A burly fighter in his late twenties took the opportunity to speak for them.
“We’ve had enough of war,” he said. He gave his name as Salaheddin.
A five-year YPG veteran who fought at al-Hol, al-Shaddadi, Manbij, Raqqa, and other battles – more than he could now recall – Salaheddin was on his third tour of the Deir Ezzor campaign.
“We’d love to rest,” he said, before adding, “we have much work ahead. Daesh isn’t finished. There are a lot of sleeper cells.”
“After we finish with the sleeper cells,” he paused, then gave a sly grin. “I’m not able to talk about that.”
YPG fighters YPG on Mount Baghuz overlooking the evacuation of ISIS civilians. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
Threat of Turkish invasion
The SDF declared Saturday it has taken a staggering 32,000 casualties in the conflict. If accurate, the losses are more than half the Pentagon’s estimate of its current forces. 11,000, including civilian volunteers who took up arms in Kobane and Efrin, are believed to have died.
The half-decade war against the Islamist genocidaires will one day be seen as the easy part, northern Syrian officials told The Defense Post.
To the north of their nascent territory, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is openly vowing a military assault to destroy the YPG and to purge its political arm, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), from local governance and re-settle hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees into Kurdish-majority areas in the north.
YPG officials, some known to be former members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have long sought to distance the Syrian project from the insurgent group, but Turkey isn’t buying it.
The Washington establishment may have called Erdogan’s bluff on an invasion for now, but northern Syrian officials are taking the threats very seriously. In 2017, Turkey launched an incursion into Efrin that displaced hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Kurds, in an act yet to be labeled by any international body as an ethnic cleansing.
YPG graffiti in eastern Syria in March 2019. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
To the south, Syrian Defense Minister Ali Abdullah Ayoub last week reiterated his government’s demands for the north’s total capitulation and reintegration into the pre-war Baathist system, under which Kurds were denied citizenship for decades.
A regime assault would “only lead to more losses, destruction and difficulties for the Syrian people,” the SDF responded.
The Kremlin, having offered to mediate a favorable outcome for the north, now say they can do little to sway Assad, northern Syrian officials say.
Within their current borders, the conflict has dumped tens of thousands of ISIS prisoners and their families into under-prepared internment camps. Northern Syrian authorities are now calling for U.N.-led and financed international tribunal to be held in Rojava (the Kurdish name for majority-Kurdish lands in northern Syria), their previous requests for the repatriation of foreign fighters mostly ignored.
Without formal international recognition, heavy artillery, armor or aircraft, the fledgling province’s fate may be largely out of its leaders’ hands for now.
Democratic project in northern Syria
In the meantime, northern Syrian authorities are managing matters within their control.
“We have defeated ISIS militarily. Now, we must do so ideologically,” said SDF media chief Mustafa Bali.
The north’s security institutions are set to be reorganized to focus on internal security operations. Officials are tight-lipped about details, but both the SDF and Asayish, or police forces, have already received new training programs focusing on hunting ISIS sleeper cells and dealing with explosives.
The U.S. Defense Department has requested $300 million in the 2020 budget for “vetted Syrian opposition” partners, including increased outfitting of northern Syria’s internal security forces and $250 million to support “border security requirements” of partner forces.
“Fighting at the front is different than the internal battle,” Aldar Xelil, senior TEV-DEM foreign affairs official, explained to me in Qamishli.
“The sleeper cells are considered the hardest phase. Harder than the phase we are undertaking now,” Mervan told me in Baghuz, as gunfire rattled in the distance.
Shouldering the weight will be the Asayish and internal intelligence services. But the vanguard against whatever remains of ISIS or its ideology will be the population of northern Syria itself, officials say.
People leave their belongings behind as they surrender from ISIS-held territory to SDF fighters in Baghuz, Syria in March 2019. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
There is a perception among many northern Syrians that segments of region’s Sunni Arab population are now more religiously conservative after living years under Islamic State, so the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria has instituted an ambitious education campaign to break down what they see is a toxic mixture of Sunni Arab chauvinism and Assadist authoritarianism.
“For 50 years this region was indoctrinated with the racism of Arab nationalism under the Baath party,” Bali said. Sectarianism, officials say, is ingrained in the Syrian constitution, legal code, and culture.
“This generation must learn and be raised [knowing] there are others such as Kurds, others such as Syriacs, others such as Christians, and it’s their right to live like you,” Bali said.
“Hussein and Mu’awiya,” early Islamic figures associated with the roots of the Sunni-Shia split, “are gone,” Bali said. “They’re dead. We need to learn how to live together.”
They will need to proceed cautiously.
The PYD’s social policies have already incurred protest in some majority-Arab areas, such as Raqqa and Deir Ezzor. Their enforcement of mandatory conscription for men and moves against political opponents have earned them some detractors among the Kurdish population.
“Every new project is met with violent reaction,” Bali told me. Nonetheless, officials say they are confident Syria’s disparate sects will embrace their stated goal of secular democratic confederalism – and a society in which women wield significant authority – once properly exposed to it.
“Society needs to breathe the oxygen of life,” Bali said. “The educational system can rescue future generations from war, from sectarian war.”
“We want to remove the barriers between nationalisms and religions,” Xelil said.
“We’re seeing a lot of progress … but we still need much time.”
They may not have it.
‘Multiple parties, not multiple armies’
The Pentagon’s reassuring gestures to the SDF belie the deeper crisis: that American diplomats have not yet found a force sufficient to replace the more than 2,000 U.S. troops maintaining stability in the north.
Nor have they found an appropriate force to man the Turkish border. Nor have they made northern Syrian officials any promises.
A residual presence of a few hundred American troops is not remotely adequate to accomplish either, former U.S. defense and national security officials say.
The Syria-Turkey border in March 2019. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
Northern Syrian officials have called for an international force for border protection against Turkey, and continue to receive sympathetic reassurances from the French and British.
But the Europeans say they cannot commit to a mission not led by a sizeable U.S. force. Even if American officials could wheedle Trump up to leaving, say, 1,000 residual troops, they still appear not to have an exit strategy to offer their western allies.
James Jeffrey, Washington’s pointman on the crisis, downplayed the dilemma last Friday.
“We’re not really looking to a coalition being peacekeepers or anything like that … We’re asking coalition personnel to continue to contribute and to up their D-ISIS operations, and we’re getting a pretty good response initially,” Jeffrey said.
US Ambassador James F. Jeffrey swears in as Special Representative for Syria Engagement, at the US Department of State on August 17, 2018. Image: US State Dept/Ron Przysucha
Meanwhile, Jeffrey’s team is seeking local Syrian forces to guard the border in order to “meet everybody’s needs.”
So far that has proven elusive. Turkey rejects any YPG presence on the border, a position Jeffrey endorsed last week. “We don’t want another Qandil in Syria,” Jeffrey said, referring to the PKK headquarters in northern Iraq.
“We need defense against Turkey, not the other way around,” a northern Syrian source with knowledge of the discussions said.
Publicly, officials from the SDF’s political arm, the Syrian Democratic Council, say they believe Jeffrey’s team is working on their behalf, and that they can understand the U.S.’s strategic concerns as Turkey flirts with Moscow.
Privately, there are frustrations. Jeffrey is perceived as ingratiating to an erratic and duplicitous supposed NATO ally using the YPG issue as a political steam-valve.
Indeed the American team appears to be waiting out Turkey’s regional elections, set for March 31, to plan the next move.
The friction may well be mutual. Northern Syrian officials reject the veteran diplomat’s proposals to bring in at least two exiled Syrian militia forces, the Rojava Peshmerga and the Syrian Elite Forces (the latter affiliated with Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba), to secure the Turkish border.
“Not possible,” Xelil told me. “First of all, Jarba doesn’t have the forces. Secondly, to those who liberated this region and administrate it, there’s no place for Jarba in this whole project. Where did this come from? It’s not possible.”
The Elite Forces’ brief cooperation with and integration into the SDF in 2016 and 2017 was seen as a political win for the Kurdish-led administration, but they fell out during the battle of Raqqa in 2017.
The Rojava Peshmerga is aligned with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria, a political rival of the PYD closely linked to its namesake in Iraq.
“The [Rojava] Peshmerga,” Xelil said, “is a red line.” He accuses the force of being trained and funded by Turkey. “How can we trust them?”
Importing rival forces with unclear allegiances will only complicate matters, northern Syrian officials said, at a time when the SDF is striving to unify its own various components.
“Democracy means multiple parties, not multiple armies,” the source said.
“We don’t see this as in the best interest of North and East Syria’s security,” the source said, speaking to The Defense Post on the condition of anonymity.
The American team is set to discuss its “initial concept,” whatever that may be, with Turkish officials any day now.
“After this is agreed upon, then we can discuss the details,” Xelil said.
In the meantime, they have instructed northern Syrian officials not to engage with the Assad regime, a difficult seat to take.
Rebuilding Syria
Even if the U.S. can cut a deal for additional forces, the Autonomous Administration must still confront near-Sisyphean tasks.
Much of Syria’s north lies in ruins from eight years of war, and there is no coherent plan to rebuild.
Trump unilaterally cancelled $230 million set aside for the endeavor last year. The president wants the rest of the Coalition to foot the bill, and U.S. officials say the $230 million has been replaced by pledges from Gulf nations. But the city of Raqqa, which was largely destroyed by Coalition airstrikes, alone needs some $5 billion, the city’s mayor said last autumn.
Apartment buildings near February 23 Street, Raqqa, Syria, July 25, 2018. Image: Gernas Maao/The Defense Post
Incidentally, the Saudis asked the U.S. government if Trump’s December withdrawal announcement meant they were off the financial hook (Trump’s subsequent tweet made it clear they were not).
The northern administration’s domestic legitimacy rests heavily on its ability to fight ISIS. With the caliphate gone, people will be looking for a return to normalcy.
“The SDF bring great security but it can still be hard to get basic goods. The situation is much better now than before, but we need help,” said Hassan, a shopkeeper in Tal Abyad.
Civilians who spoke to The Defense Post in Hasakah, Manbij, and other areas of northern Syria echoed similar sentiments. Whatever their opinions of the SDF, they feared the American withdrawal.
“We’re still living in a state of war,” Xelil said. “We need a number of services to be rebuilt. We’re deficient in municipal services, electricity, food distribution, healthcare. Syria in general is crushed.”
“The services in some other areas may be better, but our ambition is stronger,” Xelil said.
SDC officials have elicited the technical support of the Syrian regime in limited projects, but full reconstruction depends on a political settlement to the civil war.
And the Americans appear unwilling to offer that, likely in deference to Ankara’s long-standing opposition to the SDC’s participation in the U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.
“We need doors open for our participation in political operations,” a source with knowledge of the discussions told The Defense Post, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
Lack of reconstruction is a serious long-term security threat, former U.S. officials said.
A Raqqa Internal Security Force member guards an entrance to a courtyard in Raqqa, Syria, February 19, 2018. Image: US Army/Sgt. Travis Jones
In Deir Ezzor, especially, tribal grievances linger from the ISIS war and the destruction of the local oil economy by Coalition bombing.
“There is animosity towards the Kurds in some Arab areas for what is perceived as heavy-handed governance or the inequitable sharing of power and resources,” said Alexander Bick, who was Syria director in Barack Obama’s National Security Council.
“That’s a fairly combustible situation. Certainly something the Defense Department is well aware of, and has tried to address by pushing the SDF to be more inclusive, but there aren’t perfect solutions to it – particularly in the absence of resources, which this administration has decided not to put in.”
US support for the YPG
In retrospect, former U.S. officials who spoke to The Defense Post say roots of today’s crisis were sown from the beginning.
On the one hand, aligning with the YPG’s tactical goals has borne perhaps the most successful U.S. Special Forces train-and-assist mission to date.
But American officials ignored the gap between their and the YPG’s strategic goals for years, an oversight that now threatens to leave one of the world’s most vulnerable populations in what appears to be an intractable geostrategic crisis.
A YPJ fighter in Raqqa, Syria, October 2017. Image: YPJ/Twitter
Still, officials say, the decision to arm and support the YPG was not made lightly.
“They were problematic from a number of different angles,” a former official said, not simply for their roots in the PKK, which Turkey and its western allies have designated a terrorist organization.
For the Americans, however, the alternative was to accept a Turkish proposal to utilize Arab rebels “without even being shown evidence that these groups existed in sufficient numbers, organization, training to actually carry that out.”
The YPG was undoubtedly the most adept ground force available in northern Syria. And, two former officials said, its secular ideology proved an appealing antidote to the region’s toxic sectarianism.
“There are 20 million Sunni Arabs between Baghdad and Damascus who in important respects lack meaningful political representation in either country,” Bick said.
“So as long as this persists, we can and should expect radicalism to reemerge down the road.”
It was American planners who pushed a reluctant YPG to capture vast Arab-majority territories in Raqqa and Deir Ezzor.
“I think everybody [in Washington] recognized at the time that you didn’t want to be trying to govern large swaths of territory with Kurdish forces that would be perceived as outsiders,” Bick explained.
“We didn’t want a situation, strategically, where we’d be relying … exclusively on the Kurds.”
Hence the “snowball” method: As the YPG took territory, it absorbed local factions into a “professional coalition” – the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The challenge for the Obama administration was how to leverage the YPG’s military and organizational abilities against ISIS while ensuring that the burgeoning alliance was constituted in a way that would minimize intercommunal tensions after the war.
“We worried about all of those issues,” Bick said.
“The question is not was the choice perfect, but what were the other choices?”
“Did we think about it? Yes. Did we come up with a satisfactory answer to it? No,” he said.
“Did we think that getting ISIS out was a sufficiently important priority for the United States that we would, to some extent, have to fly the plane as we built it? Yes.”
The consequences of that decision have come home to roost. Turkey’s position on the YPG shifted fiercely after the U.S. in 2016 pushed the group to capture from ISIS the majority-Arab city of Manbij, near the Turkish border.
“It’s probably the most complex security situation, fighting situation I’ve seen in over four decades of dealing with – with fights,” then Defense Secretary James Mattis said in February 2018 when asked about Turkey’s position on Manbij.
“And it is one where I believe we are finding common ground and there are areas of uncommon ground where sometimes war just gives you bad alternatives to choose from.”
US and Turkish forces conduct a convoy during a joint combined patrol near Manbij, Syria, November 8, 2018. image: US Army/Spc. Zoe Garbarino
The U.S. did not have a coherent Syria policy until at least early 2018 – a year into Trump’s presidency – a former official with knowledge of the matter said.
“As the terrain changed, they moved … You end up at a place based on one decision, one decision, one more,” the official told The Defense Post on the condition of anonymity.
“There were people saying, ‘We can stop this anytime we want.’ No, you can’t,” the former official said. “If you go in here and you start doing this, you own this problem.”
The Trump administration finally pronounced a Syria plan to Congress in January 2018, after the SDF had largely captured the country’s north.
American troops would continue to occupy the country’s resource-rich territories while the Treasury Department would economically isolate the Syrian regime to bring Assad to the Geneva negotiating table, David Satterfield, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told a baffled senators in a chaotic hearing.
Just five weeks later, Trump began suggesting it was about time to pull the plug. In his December phone call with Erdogan, he tanked the whole policy.
“No prom queen aspires to be a crack whore. But some end up there through incremental bad decision-making,” the former official said.
Efrîn bernadin
With or without the Americans, the war is not over for the SDF.
Back in Baghuz, I caught one of Salaheddin’s young recruits in the stairwell of the safe house and asked what comes next for him after this battle.
He responded excitedly, “I’ll go to Efrin.”
I felt a bolt of sympathy for the kid. “You’re from Efrin?” He looked no older than 19.
He glanced over my shoulder, smile intact. “No, I’m from the graveyard of ISIS.” Kobane.
A plume of smoke rises near a village after bombs were dropped by aircraft as Turkey’s military began Operation Olive Branch against the Kurd-controlled Efrin region in Syria, January 20, 2018. Image: trthaber/Twitter
“We’ll go wherever the revolution is needed,” said a European YPJ volunteer, who gave her name as Cude, later that afternoon on the roof.
“We will take back Efrin, we will keep our liberated area and when we are finished with Rojava, we will liberate all the other oppressed areas,” she proudly told me.
No decision to widen operations against Turkey-backed Islamist rebels in Efrin has yet been made, Xelil emphasized. But covert operations and military preparations, he said, are “always being made.”
The SDF declared in February that, though it prefers dialogue with Turkey, it intends to retake Efrin and facilitate the return of its population in the post-ISIS stage.
Efrin is surrounded, Xelil said, and Russian and Syrian regime troops have been interdicting attempted YPG deployments, so any future operations depend in part on those actors.
“I think the end of Baghuz and military victory over ISIS will greatly ease matters regarding Efrin,” Xelil said.
The Americans reportedly censured the YPG for its insurgency tactics there in late 2018.
How the YPG’s ambitions may impact U.S. efforts to make nice between their partner force and NATO ally to the north was of little concern, Xelil said.
Baghuz, Syria after it was deserted by thousands of ISIS fighters and their families in March 2019. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
Northern Syrian leaders expressed profound gratitude for the support of the Americans, but Xelil said Efrin was their decision to make.
“If [the Americans] get involved, we’ll say why didn’t you get involved when Turkey attacked us?”
In Baghuz, SDF fighters were of the same mind. “If America leaves, nothing changes. We will resist,” Cude said. It was a uniform refrain.
“No one asked [the Americans] to come, no one will ask them to stay,” she said, adding, “I don’t know who to trust less, Trump or Erdogan or Putin.”
Asked if she was prepared to fight the Turkish Army or the Syrian regime, she hesitated. “I don’t know. If it’s necessary? Yeah.”
She was hopeful that a deal with Damascus would secure the north’s autonomy.
“You cannot make war all the time. You must make compromises sometimes,” she said.
Without the Americans, “it’s going to be harder, [but] we will fight until the end.”
“If we lose, we will lose fighting. There can be no surrender.”
SDF fighters near Baghuz, Syria in March 2019. Image: Jared Szuba for The Defense Post
Around midnight, back at al-Omar oilfield, some 50 miles north across the desert from Baghuz, I hunched over the embers of a dying campfire.
Two SDF fighters emerged from the darkness and sat next to me. One placed a tin pot on the coals to boil coffee, and offered me some.
The pair chatted in Kurdish for a while. Then one stood up from his chair, walked to a nearby pickup truck, and plugged his smartphone into the audio system.
A haunting Kurdish song played, one I had heard before on the road to Deir Ezzor. I asked what the words meant.
He was silent for nearly a minute, then said in Arabic, “Bombing of villages in Qandil. Turkey, about 15 years ago,” he said.
“For no reason,” he added.
We sat for several minutes in silence. One fighter rose, said goodnight, and walked away.
After some time I asked the other if he thought the Americans would stay. ”They’ll stay. They reversed the decision,” he said.
“But if you go to Efrin, won’t that make the Americans’ diplomatic efforts harder?”
He let out a long drag of his cigarette with a sigh. “God, I don’t know.” He extended his legs and planted the heels of his combat boots at the edge of the fire.
The song ended, and the officer tossed back the last of his coffee. He stood up, and took his phone from the truck.
“Sleep well. Hope to see you again.”
“Inshahallah,” I answered.
He took several paces towards the barracks then stopped. “Inshahallah after Efrin.”
American artillery thudded flatly in the distance.
ISIS’s ‘caliphate’ was crushed. Now Syria’s Kurd-led alliance faces bigger battles
Challenges after the elimination of ISIS
Although defeated on the battlefield, ISIS will continue to be a threat to stability in Syria, SDF commander-in-chief General Mazlum Kobane writes
YPJ fighters screen women and children from ISIS-held camps in Baghuz, Syria. Image: Mutlu Civiroglu
The final chapter of Islamic State has been completed successfully with the liberation of the town of Baghuz from the terrorist organization. After civilians were evacuated and hundreds of extremists surrendered, the Syrian Democratic Forces, with the participation of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, put up a strong fight against the last remnants of the terrorist organization and declared to the world the destruction of the so-called caliphate.
There is no doubt that the elimination of the terrorist organization’s territory was the result of great efforts and sacrifice by SDF forces and the Coalition. High-level coordination between the parties and their strong ties will soon bring an end to the nightmare that has enveloped the entire world and turned the region into a terrorist epicenter.
Rojda Felat, who commanded the battle against ISIS in Raqqa, surveys a flank of Tal al-Samam with other SDF commanders. Image: ©Joey L./JoeyL.com/Used with permission
The joint decisions made by the SDF and Coalition forces made the liberation of city after city possible while civilian casualties were avoided by employing precise and controlled military tactics.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to leave some U.S. forces in Syria is very crucial for the next phase of the fight against ISIS, which involves uprooting its intellectual and ideological roots, requiring continuous and long-term work.
American political and military leadership, as well as members of the U.S. Congress, agree that the threat ISIS poses is far from being completely eliminated. By keeping U.S. forces in the region and rearranging the American strategy, the next phase of the fight against terror will help the SDF to preserve the gains made so far.
General Mazlum Kobane, Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces discusses plans to liberate the final ISIS pockets in eastern Syria with US Army Lieutenant Gen. Paul E. Funk, then Commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, during a meeting near Ayn Issa, Syria, August 21, 2018. Image: US Army/Staff Sgt. Brigitte Morgan
We want to emphasize the role of the U.S. Department of Defense, and especially the commander of CENTCOM General Joseph Votel, in the territorial victory against ISIS and for ensuring security and stability in the areas liberated from the darkness. We thank him for his leadership and the important role he played in this historic achievement.
Brett McGurk, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, alongside U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James B. Jarrard, Commanding General of Special Operations Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve during a visit to Raqqa, Syria in 2018. Image: Sgt. Brigitte Morgan/US Army
We also want to acknowledge important role of the former Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Brett McGurk in this victory, and thank him for bringing together different nations under the international Coalition and building a bridge between them and the SDF.
Though the structure of ISIS will come to an end, we also want to draw attention to some major challenges that are ahead of us: sleeper cells planted by the terrorist organization, and the danger in ISIS’s ability to reorganize itself by employing tactics of individual terrorist acts such as bombings and assassinations.
In addition, the vacuum of power left after ISIS and the partial withdrawal of U.S. forces will be undoubtedly be exploited by regional and international parties.
Remains of the ISIS tent city near Baghuz, Syria. Image: Mutlu Civiroglu
There is also a growing need to restore cohesion of the community and to reorganize and return people to their communities. The areas the terrorists occupied have been turned into ruins and must be revived. This revitalization will require continued support and rehabilitation at all levels so that citizens can return to their normal lives.
In accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations, the continued cooperation between the SDF and the international Coalition to counter ISIS, led by the United States of America, will contribute to the end of the Syrian crisis. The social component and diversity of our free areas constitutes the first point toward the ultimate goal of a democratic Syria, free from all forms of terrorism.
General Mazlum Abdi is the Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
All views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of The Defense Post.
Personal Website of Mutlu Civiroglu 