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SDF has maintained its unity even in the face of Turkish occupation – US Middle East Analyst
Syrian Democratic Forces (North Press)
(North Press) – The Kurdish National Congress of North America (KNCNA), a nonprofit organization founded in 1988 focused on Kurdish rights and the attainment of an independent Kurdistan, held an online seminar on North and East Syria titled “Where’s Rojava Today?” on Saturday. The seminar’s panelists included Syrian Democratic Council Representative to the US Sinam Muhammad, Middle East Scholar Dr. Amy Austin Holmes, Rojava Activist and KNCNA Member Dr. Ihsan Efrini, and Kurdish Journalist and Analyst Mutlu Civiroglu.
The organization has been organizing conferences since 1988, and wanted to organize a conference in Washington, but “because of [coronavirus], we couldn’t go ahead, therefore we thought about a webinar,” Ihsan Efrini, a native of Afrin currently residing in Canada, told North Press. “In 2019, Rojava was trending, but it seems like people have forgotten the region. There is still a lot happening in the region that needs to be talked about,” he added about the need for such a conference to take place.
Sinam Muhammad opened the discussion by talking about the dissolution of the Syrian opposition and the invasion and occupation of her native Afrin. “Afrin was a painful moment not only for Afrinis, but for all people in Syria, and also Arabs. They felt that they were also under attack and worried about Turkish intervention in Syria, and this is what Turkey did [in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad].” Muhammad went on to discuss the completion of the first stage of the intra-Kurdish dialogue, stating, “It was so good that we reached an agreement together with the help of the United States, and I would like to thank Mr. William Roebuck this effort.” She added, “it is good for Kurdish parties to have unity…in order to have a stronger administration and stronger political solution to present to the future constitutional committee of Syria.”
Dr. Amy Holmes discussed several subjects, chief among them the unity of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as one of its key characteristics from which it draws its strength. “The SDF is a multi-ethnic force…and a multi-religious force, with Muslims, Christians, and Yezidis,” said Dr. Holmes, who previously completed a thorough and comprehensive study on the SDF in all regions of northeastern Syria.
“When Turkey invaded in October 2019…many people thought that the SDF would disintegrate, or that, for example, the Arabs in the SDF would defect – that they would go back to the regime with Assad, or that they would join Turkey…but really, nothing like that happened. There [were] no major defections within the SDF as the result of the Turkish intervention,” Holmes explained, later telling a personal anecdote about an Arab individual from Sere Kaniye who joined the SDF in 2015, as well as mentioning Kurds who joined the SDF to liberate Arab-majority areas such as Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. “The SDF has maintained its unity even in the face of this Turkish aggression,” she continued.
Mutlu Civiroglu further commented on the talks, saying that “the initiative has brought a very optimistic atmosphere to the region…[it] has caused happiness among the people: activists, local people, military people, and politicians.” Civiroglu also mentioned local concern about the Caesar Act, saying “the other major topic in the region was the Caesar Act, and its impacts on the region under the Syrian Democratic Council or Syrian Democratic Forces’ control – how will the region be protected?”
The seminar lasted around an hour and a half, with each panelist sharing their views and answering viewer’s questions in the end. Many topics, including the intra-Kurdish negotiations, entry of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq-based Rojava Peshmerga into Rojava, the Turkish occupations of Afrin, Serekaniye, and Tel Abyad, and the efforts and unity of the Syrian Democratic Forces, were discussed during the meeting.
Reporting by Lucas Chapman
DAİŞ’in karıştırılan Kardaşları
Kürt kaynakları, DAİŞ’in Irak’ta yakalandığı söylenen yeni lideri hakkındaki haberlere itibar etmiyor. Kürt gazeteci Bêrîtan Sarya, DAİŞ’in yeni liderinin Türkiye’de olduğunu, işi bittiği takdirde Türk devletinin onu gözden çıkartabileceğini söyledi.
DAİŞ çetesinin lideri Ebubekir El Bağdadi’nin 27 Ekim’de Türkiye sınırında bir köyde öldürülmesinin ardından yerine geçen Abdulnasır Kardaş’ın (Qardaş) Irak’ta yakalandı belirtilse de, bu konuda bir belirsizlik hakim.
Kürt kaynakları gerçek adının Muhammed Abdulrahman El Mewla El Selbi olduğu belirtilen Çetebaşı Abdulnasır Kardaş’ın yakalandığına ilişkin haberlerin doğru olmadığını, yakalandığı söylenen kişinin, Bahoz’da Suriye Demokratik Güçleri’nin (QSD) düzenlediği operasyonda yakalanan ve Irak’a teslim edilen kişi olduğu belirtiliyor. Abdulnasır Kardaş, DAİŞ içinde Abdullah Kardaş ya da Hacı Abdullah Olarak da biliniyor.
Suriye ve Rojava’daki gelişmeleri yakından takip eden gazeteci Bêrîtan Sarya, geçtiğimiz aylarda Kuzey Suriye’de tutuklu bulunan başka bir DAİŞ’li ile yaptığı söyleşide Abdulnasır Kardaş’ın Türkiye’de MİT denetiminde olduğu bilgisini geçmişti.
ANF’nin haberleri doğrulandı
DAİŞ’in yeni liderinin yakalandığına ilişkin haberler Sky News Arabia tarafından ortaya atıldı. Söz konusu bilgi, daha sonra Irak haber ajansı ve devlet televizyonu tarafından da doğrulandı. Ancak yetkililer, henüz bir açıklamada bulunmadı.
Geçtiğimiz Ocak ayında Irak istihbarat servislerinin sorumluları, The Guardian gazetesine verdikleri bilgilerde DAİŞ çetelerinin yeni şefinin Abdulnasır Kardaş olduğunu doğrulamıştı. Aynı yetkililer, çetebaşının gerçek isminin Emir Muhammed Abdulrahman El Mewla El Selbi olduğunu belirtmişlerdi.
The Guardian gazetesinden önce ANF, DAİŞ çetelerinin yeni elebaşısının Qardaş olduğunu ortaya çıkarmıştı. ANF’den gazeteci Bêrîtan Sarya’nın ortaya çıkardığı bu bilgi, daha sonra batılı medya ve istihbarat servislerince de doğrulanmıştı.
DAİŞ’in başı Ankara’da
Bêrîtan Sarya’nın Kuzey Suriye’de tutuklu DAİŞ Türk çete Taner Sabri Görenoğlu ile görüşmesi 22 Ocak 2020’de ANF’de yayınlanmıştı. Söyleşide Görenoğlu, DAİŞ içinde Abdulnasır Kardaş’ın (Hacı Abdullah, Abdullah Kardaş) yakın adamlarından biri olduğunu belirtiyor, Kardaş’ın Türkiye ve Erdoğan’a övgüler düzdüğünü ifade ediyordu. Bêrîtan Sarya’nın 13 Şubat 2020 tarihli ANF’de çıkan bir başka haberinde de yeni DAİŞ liderinin, Ankara ve Antep’te MİT denetimindeki DAİŞ’i yeniden örgütlediği, Irak’ta yeni bir cepheye açmaya hazırlandığı vurgulanıyordu. Haberde Kardaş’ın 2017’de İdlib’e, oradan da Türkiye’ye geçtiği bilgisi yer almıştı. Haberde, çete lideri ve Türkiye’deki faaliyetleri konusunda çok sayıda ayrıntıyı da bulmak mümkün.
QSD teslim etti
Bêrîtan Sarya, dün ise Irak’ta yakalandığı söylenen kişinin DAİŞ lideri Abdulnasır Kardaş ile bir ilgisinin olmadığını, Irak’ta yakalanan kişinin, QSD güçlerinin Bahoz operasyonunda yakalayıp, Iraklı yetkililere teslim ettiği kişi olduğunu kişisel twitter hesabından yayınladı.
Gazeteci Sarya’nın bir kaç twittinde şu ifadeler yer aldı: “Hacı Abdulnasır, yani Taha Abdurrahim Abdullah. Bağdadi’nin yakın adamlarındandı. 2017 yılında Lijne Muvafa’da genel emiriydi. 2019’da Bahoz’da SDG (QSD-Suriye Demokrati Güçleri) tarafından yakalandı. Daha önce haberini yapmıştım. Hacı Abdulnasır kod adlı DAİŞ üst yönetiminde yer alan Taha Abdürrahim Abdullah, 2019 Mart ayında SDG tarafından Bahoz’da yakalandı. Geçtiğimiz günlerde SDG tarafından Irak’a teslim edildi. Hacı Abdulnasır’la Rojava’da yaptığım görüntülü röportajların bir bölümünü yayınlayacağız. Taha Abdurrahim Abdullah’ın (Hacı Abdulnasır) soyadı Kardaş değil ve DAİŞ’in yeni Halifesi Abdullah Kardaş’la herhangi bir akrabalık bağı yok. Hacı Abdulnasır, DAİŞ’in en üst yönetim organı Lijne Mufavada’nın genel emirliğini yapmış Tilaferli bir Türkmen.
Bir süredir twitterda “DAİŞ’in yeni halifesi Abdullah Kardaş’ın yakalandığına dair haberler yapılıyor. Önce Derêzor, sonra Irak’ta yakalandı denildi. DAİŞ’in yeni lideri Emir Muhammed Abdurrahman El Mevla El Selbi (Abdullah Kardaş) Türkiye’de MİT denetiminde DAİŞ’i yeniden örgütlüyor. DAİŞ’in yeni liderinin yakalanacağını düşünmüyorum. Ama Türkiye’nin onunla işi bitirse öldürür ya da başka bir yerde (İdlib, Irak) Koalisyon’a öldürtür. Ölüm haberini servis ederler. Tıpkı Bağdadi olayındaki gibi. Ama Selbi, Türkiye’ye Bağdadi’den çok daha yakın. O yüzden daha zamanı var.”
Amerika’da yaşayan Kürt gazeteci Mutlu Çiviroğlu da Twitter hesabında Abdulnasır Kardaş’ın geçen yıl Bahoz’da yakalanıp Irak’a teslim edilen kişi olduğunu ayrıca bu kişinin DAİŞ lideri gibi bir sıfatının olmadığını belirtti.
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Kürt sancısı
Somut tabloya baktığımızda durum çok korkunç. Ben uzun zamandır etnik temizliğin bu kadar konuşulduğunu hatırlamıyorum. İsrail-Filistin meselesinde konuşuldu bu bağlam en son, şu an bunun bir ‘çözüm’ olarak hem ABD hem Türkiye liderleri tarafından açıkça konuşuluyor olması zaten yeterince korkunç.
ZABEL MİRKAN
Dr. Yektan Türkyılmaz, soykırım ve toplu şiddet çalışmalarında Türkiye’de akla gelen ilk isimlerden biri. Söyleşimizin ikinci bölümünde Türkyılmaz, soykırım ve etnik temizlik üzerine konuştuk. ‘’Uzun zamandır etnik temizliğin bu kadar konuşulduğunu hatırlamıyorum’’ diyen Türkyılmaz, Türkiye’de soykırım tehdidinin hiçbir zaman ortadan kalkmadığını belirtti ve ekledi: ‘’Çünkü Türkiye Cumhuriyeti hükümetleri bunu sorundan ziyade işe yarayan ve kriz anında gerçek veyahut da hayali düşmanlara karşı başarıyla kullanılmış ve bir daha kullanılmasında bir sakınca olmayan bir edavat gibi tutuyor çantasında.’’
Savaşın 3. gününde AB-ABD eksenli somut bir adım göremeyen QSD’nin Şam ve Rusya ile hızlı bir diyalog geliştirmesi bu duruma hazırlıklı olunduğunu mu gösteriyor?
Bence tersini gösteriyor. Özellikle QSD’nin Amerika’nın çekileceğine dair bir beklentisi olmadığını anlıyorum. Yani ABD güçleri çekildiğinde ne yapılacağına ilişkin bir A, B planı da yoktu bence. Dolayısıyla aciliyet üzerine yapıldı bu hamleler. Bir öngörü yoktu. Bunun böyle olduğunu üç gün sonra da ABD’nin araya girmesi vasıtasıyla da gördük. Madem siz Şam’la anlaştınız, o doğrultuda ilerlersiniz; ama öyle olmadı. Bu işin birinci kısmı. İkinci kısma gelince: ABD’nin QSD ve YPG’yle yakınlaşmasına bakarsak, bu kadar önemli bir güç haline gelmelerinin koşullarını Türkiye Cumhuriyeti hazırladı. Davutoğlu hazırladı, Tayyip Erdoğan devam ettirdi. Bütün NATO üyesi ülkeler için öncelik IŞİD olarak belirlenirken, Türkiye bu önceliğini Esad’a verdi. Hâl böyle olunca, Ankara IŞİD’i Esad karşıtı mücadelenin ister zımni deyin, ister de facto deyin, ister fiili deyin ortağı olarak gördü. Ayrıca İŞİD’in Türkiye’nin ‘doğal’ düşman gördüğü grupları da hedef aldığını unutmayalım. Bu sebeplerle Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ne zaman ki IŞİD’e karşı global koalisyon kuruldu, bunun olmaması için elinden ne geliyorsa yaptı. Tel Abyad, Resulayn gibi bölgelerin IŞİD’in lojistik damarı olduğu biliniyordu. ABD temsilcileri ısrarla Ankara’dan buraları kapatması talebinde bulunuyor, yapılmıyor. İŞİD karşıtı mücadeleye aktif katılımı istendiğinde imkansız şartlar koşuyor. Peki Türkiye’nin IŞİD’e karşı savaşıyoruz dediği nedir? Ne zaman anlıyorlar ki QSD-YPG Efrîn’de kantonları bağlayacak noktaya gelir, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin IŞİD’le ‘savaşı’ başlar.
Burada ortaya çıkan çok atipik bir tablo. Bir NATO gücü, yanınızdaki NATO devletiyle değil devletsiz bir silahlı güçle işbirliği yapıyor. ABD bunu isteyerek, can-ı gönülden yapmıyor; mecburiyetten yapıyor. Çünkü alanda IŞİD’e karşı savaşan bir güç yok, stratejik ortağı ise bunu kendi çıkarları doğrultusunda görmüyor. Bu siyaseti YPG çok iyi değerlendirdi. ABD bu durumdan çok memnun olmasa da, YPG alanda o kadar efektifti ki bundan vazgeçemediler. Minbiç’te vazgeçmeye çalıştılar, baktılar olmuyor YPG’yle yollarına devam ettiler. Kısacası, bu ilişkinin koşullarını Türkiye yarattı, YPG de muazzam bir şekilde değerlendirdi.
Şunun altını çizmek istiyorum; ABD için YPG siyasi bir ittifak değildi; askeri bir ittifaktı. Stratejik bir ortaklık da sözkonusu değildi; konu ve hedef odaklı bir ortaklıktı söz konusu olan. Zaman içerisinde başka ihtimaller ortaya çıktı; ama ittifakın özü değişmedi. Kürt tarafının bunu iyi anlaması lazım. Bunlar olurken ABD yönetimi için stratejik ortak hâlâ Türkiye’ydi. ABD’nin YPG-QSD’yle askeri işbirliği hiçbir zaman siyasi işbirliğine dönmemiştir ve tam tersine ABD bu konuda her zaman çok kararlı biçimde otonom yönetimin siyasi açılımlarına engel olmuştur.
Kürtlerin cephesinden baktığımızda da anladığım kadarıyla QSD, ABD’yle ittifak düşünürken siyasi kanattakiler daha başka ittifakları da değerlendiriyor. Siyasi kanat Suriye’nin birliğine inanıyor ve bu işin Esad’la olmasına yekten karşı değil; ama ABD’nin askeri planı ve ülkeye ilişkin siyasi öngörüsü Esad’sız. SDK’den gelen seslere bakarsanız İlham Ehmed, Aldar Xelil, Salih Müslim; Mazlum Abdî ve Polat Can’dan daha başka yerden bakıyorlar meseleye. İlham Ehmed Foreign Policy dergisindeki röportajda söylüyor örneğin: Şam’la görüşmeye çalıştığımız zaman ABD geri çekilmekle tehdit etti. Bu önemli çünkü ABD’nin Kürtlerin siyasi bir proje geliştirmelerine engel olmaya çalıştıkları ortada. Uluslararası birçok toplantı yapıldı Suriye’nin geleceğiyle ilgili, ABD Kürtlerin temsiliyeti konusunda ne istekli ne de ısrarcı oldu. Tam tersine; buna ABD’nin kendi içinde yapılan toplantılar da dahil. Buna Obama ve Trump yönetimi ve şu anki durum da dahil. Nihayetinde evet QSD büyük bir güç oldu; ama diplomatik, siyasal alanda büyük bir güce dönüşemedi.
ABD bir yandan da sınırdaki ağır silahların kaldırılmasını istedi?
Bu zaten akla ziyan bir durum. Amerika’daki durum Türkiye’dekine çok benziyor. Suriye temsilcisi Jeffrey konuşmalardan haberi olmadığını söylüyor. Pentagon’un nasıl bir planı olduğuyla State Department’ın ne yaptığı, Trump’ın nihai kararları arasında uçurum var. Biri sürekli QSD’nin kıymetinin altını çiziyor, biri Türkiye’yi koruyan bir yerden konuşuyor. Bir diğeri ise Türkiye’yi tamamen hedef tahtasına koymuş tonda…
Bu süreçte demokrat dünya kamuoyunda Kürtlere yönelik bir soykırım tehdidi olduğu pek çok insan ve hatta devlet yetkilileri tarafından deklare edildi. Siz bu tehlikeyi ne boyutta görüyorsunuz?
İlk evvela “soykırım” kelimesini özenli kullanmakta fayda olduğunu düşünüyorum. Bunun etik sorunları kadar umduğunuz tersi siyasal sonuçlara yol açma ihtimali var. Biraz kanıksayıcı bir hâl de yaratıyor bu tür kavramların sık kullanımı ve baktığınızda “etnik temizlik” kavramı yeteri kadar korkunç bir şey zaten. Sanmayalım ki pogrom daha az kötü, soykırım daha kötü ve iki ayrı şeyler. Bunlar zaten relatif kavramlar. Birbirinden kopamazlar. Soykırım pogramlar içerir ve zaten etnik temizliktir. Meselenin etik kısmına gelince, bugüne kadarki soykırım örneklerini, Kürtlerin uğradığı Dersim de dahil, ucuzlatıcı tavırlara girmemek gerekiyor. Siyasal boyutta ise, siz soykırım dediğinizde insanlar mobilize olmuyorlar; çoğu zaman paralize oluyorlar. Madun grup adına siyaset yapanlar bu mefhumu kullandıklarında ne yapacaklarını da söylemek durumundalar. Bir de tabii ki soykırım dediğinizde siyasi tercihlerinizdeki doğrular ve yanlışlar da görünmez kılınıyor. Başka ihtimaller neydi diye kimse soramaz siz böyle dediğinizde.
Somut tabloya baktığımızda ise durum çok korkunç. Ben uzun zamandır etnik temizliğin bu kadar konuşulduğunu hatırlamıyorum. İsrail-Filistin meselesinde konuşuldu bu bağlam en son, şu an bunun bir ‘çözüm’ olarak hem ABD hem Türkiye liderleri tarafından açıkça konuşuluyor olması zaten yeterince korkunç. Soykırım ihmaline gelirsek de, 2016’da Cizre sonrası ilgili bir yazı yazmıştım Evrensel’de. Kabaca şunu söylüyordum orada, Türkiye’de bu tehdit hiçbir zaman ortadan kalkmamıştır. Çünkü Türkiye Cumhuriyeti hükümetleri bunu sorundan ziyade işe yarayan ve kriz anında gerçek veyahut da hayali düşmanlara karşı başarıyla kullanılmış ve bir daha kullanılmasında bir sakınca olmayan bir edavat gibi tutuyor çantasında. Özellikle Suriye krizinin ve Kürt meselesinin geldiği noktaya baktığımızda kırmızı alarm çalıyor. Bölgesel duruma soykırım demeyeyim ama zaten benzeri felaketleri üretebileceğini sürekli gösterdiler bize. Êzîdîlere ne oldu örneğin? Ve felaketler unutmayalım ki bulaşıcıdır, sınırları çok kolay aşar. Şengal dediğimiz yerin bir tarafı Suriye sınırı, bir tarafı Türkiye. Özellikle bu savaş esnasında sivillerin maruz kaldığı işkenceler ve etnik temizlik konusundaki programatik ve aşkâre çaba çok tehlikeli. Kürtler şurada yaşayabilir, Araplar şurada yaşayabilir söylemleri akla ziyan, kan dondurucu söylemler.
Türkiye’nin işgali Şam’ın elini Kürtlere karşı güçlendirdi gibi görülüyor. Bunun olası sonuçları nedir, Kürtlerin Suriye’de 2011’den önceki duruma gelmeleri söz konusu mu?
Evet; ama bir yandan da şu ortaya çıktı. Bu gibi anlarda maksimalist düşünen aktörler hem kendilerinin hem de başkalarının başına felaket getirmeye en meyilli aktörlerdir. Kazanç-kayıp hesabı için özellikle Kürtler için çok erken. Şu an ABD ve Avrupa genelinde yaşanan büyük bir sancı var ve bu aslında “Kürt sancısı”. Kürtlerin siyasi aktör olarak bugüne kadar dışlanması nedeniyle artık bu ülkelerin başkentlerinde büyük sancı yaşanıyor. Ayrıca, el güçlenmesinden ziyade önemli olan bu aktörün ayakta kalabilmesi. Şu an Kürtlerin ve Türkiye’nin temel sorunu ayakta kalma mücadelesi. Bu fırtına dindiği zaman kim ayakta kalacak? Güçlerinin bütünlüğünü koruyarak bu kasırgadan çıkma çabası kıymetli. Ayakta kaldığınız zaman rüzgâr daha çok değiştirecek yönünü.
Şam kısmında da Kürtlerin yapabileceği çok fazla bir şey yoktu, ABD bunu direkt bloke etti çünkü. Bugün anlaşma yaparsanız üç yıl öncesine göre tabii eliniz daha zayıf; ama 2011 öncesine dönmeyi kimse artık rüyasında bile göremez. Kürt Hareketi için böyle bir geriye gidiş mümkün değil artık…
Mutlu Civiroğlu Kürt yetkililerle yaptığı görüşmelerde Şam rejiminin hâlâ tekçi bir yapıyı savunduğunu, en azından o mantıkla işleri yürütmeye çalıştığını söylüyordu. Şam ve Rusya, ABD’yle kıyaslandığında nasıl müttefikler oldu Kürtler için? Ya da daha doğrusu, oldular mı?
Kürt dememeye çalışıyorum çünkü QSD’nin yüzde 40’tan fazlası Kürt olmayan unsurlar. Şam masaya öyle oturacaktır muhtemelen. Şam bunda ısrar ederse çözümsüzlükte ısrar edeceği manasına geliyor bu durum ki Rusya bile bu yönde konuşmuyor. Almanya’nın bir çıkışı vardı örneğin, güvenli bölgenin çok uluslu olmasına dair. Ve baktığınızda Avrupa Suriye konusunda pişmanlık yaşıyor gibi görünüyor ve daha çok dahil olmak istiyor. Onlar başından itibaren Esad’lı çözüme kategorik olarak karşı çıktılar ama gelinen noktada bir gerçeklik var. Esad’ın da bu çözümsüzlükten yana kalması teritoryal bütünlük iddiasını oldukça zora düşürecek bir konum. Şu an Kürtlere hiçbir statü vermeden çözüm, sadece Ankara’daki intiharcı maceracıların düşlerinden ibaret.
Son gelişmeler ışığında konuşacak olursak, Bağdadi’den sonra IŞİD sözcüsü de Cerablus’ta öldürüldü. Bu durum bize ne ifade ediyor? Bağdadi’nin Reyhanlı’da çekilmiş fotoğrafları da olduğu iddia ediliyor bir yandan…
Türkiye’de bu konuda “milli sessizlik” ilân edilmiş gibi gerçekten. Doğru düzgün kimse bir açıklama yapmadı ve aksine lafı geveledi. Cumhurbaşkanı tarafından İngilizce bir tweet atıldı, sanki olayın Türkiye için bir önemi yokmuş gibi. Onun dışında garip ifadeler geldi iktidara yakın kesimlerden. Başka dillere çevrildiğinde de insanın kanını dondurdan açıklamalar bunlar. “O ne kadar teröristse bu da o kadar terörist” gibi. Sükût ikrardan gelir sözünü unutmayalım. Burada bir sıkıntı var demek ki.
Şimdi bu sıkıntının ne olduğuna bakalım. Bir ülke düşünün, ‘ben teröre karşı mücadele için canımı vermeye hazırım’, ‘benim için hayat terörle mücadeleden ibaret’, ‘benim dünyaya gelmekteki en büyük hedefim terörle mücadele etmek’ diyor. Çok güzel. ‘Hatta o kadar rahatsızım ki terörden, 30 kilometreden yakın olduğu zaman uyuyamıyorum bile’ diyor. Gayet güzel. Bunun için de meşru bir güç kullanmak zorunda olduğunu söylüyor. Çok güzel. Peki ondan sonra ne oluyor? Kendi sınırına 5060 metrede, kendi gözlem noktasının dibinde, Türkiye denetimi altındaki topraklarda bir operasyon yapılıyor. Bu operasyonu NATO müttefiki bir ülke herkesi dahil ederek yapıyor; ama gelin görün ki Türkiye’ye kırmızı kart gösteriyor. Trump esas itibariyle sadece şunu söylüyor Türkiye’yle ilgili: “Bize sorun çıkartmadılar.” Operasyonu Pentagon yapıyor ve biz buraya TSK’dan habersiz QSD’yle ortak operasyon yaptık diyor. İşbirliğini geçin beraber operasyondan bahsediliyor, İŞİD sözcüsüne karşı Cerablus’taki operasyonda helikopterde QSD’lilerin olduğu bile iddia edildi. Bu operasyonda IŞİD kadar Türkiye de Pentagon’un hedefi, bunu görmemek mümkün değil. Türkiye’nin dahil edilmemesi ise Türkiye’nin güya terörizme karşı mücadeleyle hikâyeleştirmeye çalıştığı şeyin ne kadar berhava olduğunu gösteriyor. Bu anlatı, iflas etmiş bir anlatı ve dünya çapında bir karşılığı yok. Türkiye’nin IŞİD’le mücadele ettiğine diplomatik düzeyde inanacak kimse yok artık, aksine Türkiye’nin ne yaptığına dair eklenen daha fazla soru işareti mevcut.
9 Ekim’de gönderilen ama bizim bir hafta sonra haberimizin olduğu ve Türkiye devleti cumhurbaşkanına yönelik sert ifadelerin olduğu mektupta dahi Mazlum Abdî’nin adı geçiyordu. Abdî’nin hakkında kırmızı bülten çıkarılması isteniyor; ama bir yandan Twitter gibi güçlü bir sosyal medya kanalı onu tanıdığını gösteren “mavi tik” veriyor. Bu durumu nasıl yorumluyorsunuz?
Türkiye’nin terörle mücadele meselesinin ciddiye alınmadığının bir diğer göstergesi bu da. Dedik ya Türkiye küme düştü, düşünün artık Türkiye’nin Interpol raporlarını kimse ciddiye almıyor. ABD’nin davet ettiği bir ismi siz Interpol’e bildiriyorsunuz. Bu artık acziyetin ifadesi olabilir sadece. Sembolik durumu da gösteriyor tabii bu “mavi tik” olayı. Türkiye bu operasyonla eğer Kürt Hareketini marjinalize etmeyi umuyorduysa olan tam tersi oldu ve aslında olan Türkiye’ye oldu. ABD’de artık YPG, PYD zaten meşru ve hatta müttefik olarak görülüyor ve PKK ile bağın bir sorun olarak gündeme gelmiyor kongredeki tanıklıklarda. Jeffrey’nin söylediklerine bakın. Ki Jeffrey bakıldığında QSD’ye en uzak isimlerden biri aslında.
Terörle mücadele söyleminin artık dünyada bir karşılığı yok. Türkiye’nin trajedisi de bu oldu. Hiçbir meşruiyet devşiremediklerini; tam tersine, saldırdıkları tarafı güçlendiren bir pozisyona kendi elleriyle sürüklendiklerini gösteriyor. Bu süreçte içeride yürüttüğü politikalardan en ironik olanı ise antiemperyalist olduklarını iddia ederek yaptıkları. Türkiye kadar bölgedeki emperyalist güçlere sınırsız itaat gösteren başka bir ülke daha yoktur. Kıbrıs’ta Türkiye’nin talebi kolonyalist İngilizlere karşı isyan eden Kıbrıs Rumlarının statü sahibi olmamasıydı; ama Türkiye Kıbrıs’ta İngilizlerin varlığına hiçbir zaman itiraz etmemiştir. Aynı şekilde İskenderun’da mandaya hiçbir zaman itiraz etmemiştir. Ne zaman ki manda yönetimi, sosyalistler iş başına gelince geri çekileceklerini söylemiştir Türkiye de o zaman çıkmıştır. Burada da benzer bir durum söz konusu. Türkiye’nin emperyal güçlere karşı durduğu en büyük yalan. Bir şeyler elde ettik, “zafer” elde ettik diyorlarsa, öyle diyorlar ya biz de zafer kabul edelim, bunun yüzde 90’ı Trump idaresine ve Rusya’ya bağlı…
Turkey military operation much larger than anticipated: Analysts
Tactic is to advance into Arab-majority areas and drive a wedge between YPG-controlled territory, observers say.
![Arab and Kurdish civilians flee following Turkish bombardment in Syria's northeastern town of Ras al-Ain [Delil Souleiman/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/10/10/4ea2542549d14dbeb82d372ea155a3b1_18.jpg "Turkey military operation much larger than anticipated: Analysts")
Arab and Kurdish civilians flee following Turkish bombardment in Syria’s northeastern town of Ras al-Ain [Delil Souleiman/AFP]
The long-awaited operation launched by Turkey into northeastern Syria extended far beyond what was initially expected by military observers who predicted Ankara would likely embark on limited action.
In the first hours of Operation Peace Spring, Turkish air raids across the border reached as far as Qamishli in the east and further west of Kobane.
Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based Middle East analyst, told Al Jazeera the scale of the attack surprised many analysts.
“They’ve already hit 300km length and 50km depth, almost all major cities are hit,” Civiroglu said.
Soner Cagaptay, Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s research programme director, told Al Jazeera Turkey’s assault at this point was focused on Arab-majority towns.
“I think that’s quite a smart choice for Ankara because of the fact that Turkish troops will be more welcome in Arab-majority areas, given how friendly Turkey has been towards the Arab population,” Cagaptay said.
He said Turkey will continue to drive a wedge between Kurdish-controlled territory as a strategy to undermine the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and weaken the political authority that controls the border region with Turkey.
The SDF is spearheaded by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers to be linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has operated inside Turkey for decades. The PKK has been branded a “terrorist” organisation by Turkey and several other countries.
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Wednesday’s cross-border operation was not the first. Last year, Turkey launched a similar offensive dubbed Operation Olive Branch into Syria’s Afrin town to “clear the area of terrorists”.
The SDF, while not wanting to comment on specifics, told Al Jazeera it was reviewing Turkish military strategy during Olive Branch to map out a response to the current operation.
According to local activists on the ground, the number one target for Turkey is the Arab-majority town of Tal Abyad, where Ankara hopes to quickly establish a ground presence.
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Turkish security analyst and former special forces soldier Necdet Ozcelik told Al Jazeera he expects the first phase of Turkey’s operation will only last about 10 days, or a couple of weeks maximum, with the goal to take control of the area between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain.
The offensive will also involve thousands of Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels providing ground support for Turkish commandos and its regular soldiers.
‘Under pressure’
Civiroglu said two scenarios were likely to unfold: Turkey intensifying ground operations, or the operation being halted because of condemnation from the international community.
“Trump is under pressure, the Turkish government is under pressure, the UN Security Council will meet today … The world is not buying arguments of the Turkish government,” he said.
“The SDF always wanted good relations [with Turkey] … Kurdish sympathy is very strong, that’s why there’s strong diplomatic efforts to put an end to this.”
The possibility remains that Syrian government forces of President Bashar al-Assad may try to capture the main city of Manbij, if the United States decides to withdraw its troops from there without giving early warning to the Turks.
“In this case, the Syrian army may try to capture Manbij before the Turkish forces or the FSA,” Ozcelik said.
“We might be seeing some sort of tension, or maybe limited confrontation, between the FSA elements and the Assad regime forces in Manbij area, but not in the eastern part.”
‘Turkish aggression’
The SDF responded to Turkey’s military action with artillery attacks and rockets fired into Turkish territory.
SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said on Twitter the Kurdish fighters would not allow Turkish troops to advance further. “We will use all our possibilities against Turkish aggression,” he said.
Heavy fighting was taking place in Syrian border villages between advancing Turkish forces and SDF soldiers on Thursday.
Ozcelik said the Kurds were no match for the advancing Turkish-led forces.
“The YPG elements are composed of a lot of PKK ideology people, and they forcibly recruited many people who did not have serious military experience,” he said. “I’m expecting a lot of defections from the YPG side, so the Turkish military is going to take advantage of that.”
Robert Wesley of the Terrorism Research Initiative told Al Jazeera that Turkey will also suffer setbacks considering how vast the area is that it wants to control.
“It will require huge amounts of direct military engagement from the Turkish side,” Wesley said.
“The use of the FSA, that will also be limited [because] these groups are not really well-trained. They don’t have a strong track record with more sophisticated defences.”
Turkey may not have the appetite for sustaining significant casualties, Wesley said, which a serious military encounter with the SDF would necessitate.
“I don’t think either side is particularly well prepared for the engagement,” he said.
The biggest challenge for the SDF is not having a weapon system that can counter Turkish air attacks, Civiroglu said.
“[Even so] they have said they will defend themselves until the end,” he noted.
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Russian reaction
Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned Ankara after the Turkish operation began to stress that Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected.
The Kremlin said it would not interfere further in Syria after years of supporting Assad’s forces against rebel groups, but cautioned Turkey not to take any steps that would destabilise the region.
Cagaptay said Moscow has no choice but to back Turkey’s move. “The most Russia will do is to voice support behind closed doors, even though they may publicly criticise the operation,” he said.
He said the Kremlin may even be welcoming Ankara’s military action.
“The [Syrian] regime and Russia consider Turkey a threat, so by provoking Turkey to attack Kurds really Russia is hitting two birds with one,” Cagaptay said. “Hitting Kurds, trying to make Kurds dependent on Russia, at the same time allow Turkey to suppress the Kurds, not allow them to make gains.”
Even if Turkey is successful in securing its so-called “safe-zone” to return about two million Syrian refugees, there will be major challenges ahead, observers said.
The complex issue of containing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) fighters who are still active in the region must be addressed by Turkey.
As seen by the suicide attack claimed by the armed group in Raqqa on an SDF intelligence base, killing 13 people, ISIL may be defeated militarily but sleeper cells are still prevalent.
“It’s unfamiliar territory for Turkey,” Civiroglu said. “It’s Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Christians, and Yazidis of the region [who] fought these people.”
A ticking time bomb: Meeting the ISIS women of al-Hol
A woman at al-Hol camp in Syria. Image: Mutlu Civiroglu
A pregnant woman was reportedly beaten to death this week in a Syrian refugee camp housing tens of thousands of people displaced by the war against Islamic State where they live among the militants’ wives and children in conditions described by international agencies and reporters who have visited the camp as harsh, dire, and even apocalyptic.
The woman, identified as 30-year-old Sodermini by ANHA news agency, was six months pregnant, and originally from Indonesia. On July 28, her body was discovered in a tent and taken to a hospital run by the Kurdish Red Crescent, where an autopsy determined she had suffered tremendously before she died.
The Indonesian government said it is investigating the circumstances of her death, and the woman is believed to be among about 50 Indonesian adherents to Islamic State living among about 70,000 people in the camp. It’s not known yet who killed her or why.
Children have died in the camp, and the International Committee of the Red Cross said recently that, despite the efforts of international NGOs to treat people with war wounds, infections, or who are suffering from malnutrition, the humanitarian needs in al-Hol remain “tremendous.”
Last month, Kurdish analyst and journalist Mutlu Civiroglu visited al-Hol camp and other areas managed by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the de facto government in northern and eastern Syria. He found al-Hol to be a “ticking time bomb” – dangerously overcrowded, too large for the Kurdish internal security police force called the Asayish to control, and full of children deeply at risk of becoming the next generation of ISIS fighters.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Women walk in al-Hol camp in Syria in July 2019. Image: Mutlu Civiroglu
The Defense Post: To start, tell me about the camps. Who runs them? How many people are there –how many women, men and children? How many are believed to be ISIS adherents and their families? How many are civilians?
Mutlu Civiroglu: According to the U.N. over 70,000 people live in al-Hol Camp. UNICEF estimates that more than 90% of them are children and women. Nearly 20,000 of the children are Syrians. According to Kurdish officials I spoke with, in total there are about 30,000 ISIS women and their children from 62 different countries. They are mainly in al-Hol but also in Ain Issa and Roj camps.
The whole of al-Hol camp is very crowded. Over 70,000 people live there. Considering the very hot summer, the camp residents live under very tough circumstances.
We were there one day when it was very hot. The sewage water was outside, on the surface – a very unhygienic environment and invitation for disease and illness. There are not enough doctors or health centers, according to the people we spoke to.
Security-wise it’s very risky because it’s over-crowded, hard to control. A few weeks ago an Asayish officer was stabbed. A 14-year-old Azeri girl was killed because she was not covering her hair, according to the people on the ground. I had to go to the camp with strong protection after this incident. It’s like a ticking bomb. The Kurdish administration runs the camp but UNICEF [the U.N. children’s agency], UNHCR [the U.N. refugee agency], the Red Cross, World Health Organization, and other intergovernmental organizations are there to support them, from what I could see.
Abdulkarim Omar, head of foreign relations in Jazira canton, told me that including Syrians and Iraqis there a total of 30,000 ISIS women and children under their control and around 12,000 are foreigners (muhajirs) and 8,000 of them are children. Of course male suspected ISIS members are kept in prison in different locations. Currently some 6,000 ISIS fighters are under SDF control: 5,000 are Iraqi and Syrian, and the other 1,000 are foreigners from 55 different states.
TDP: How are they separated?
The ISIS families are separated from the rest of the Iraqis and Syrians. There are wires separating them from the rest of the refugee community in the camp, and their location is known by the security and Asayish forces.
TDP: Do they live more or less freely within the camp or are their schedules and movements restricted?
The camp residents were allowed to go out for shopping until recently, but several escape incidents took place, and some ISIS women were taken out by smugglers, so the camp administration recently banned residents from going out. Instead they set up a new market inside of the camp, called Baghuz market. The administration is more strict now.
Their movements have to be restricted because of the killings. I was told the Russian women did that [killing of a 14-year-old Azeri girl] – by Russian I mean women from Chechnya, Dagestan, the Muslim republics of Russia – so their movements are more restricted and security is tightened after these incidents. Some camp residents have complained that because they’re not allowed out of the camp, the prices became more expensive and they’re having a hard time living because things are more expensive now. But they also acknowledge that by the mistake of some of the ISIS wives they’re all suffering.
I was told that kids are encouraged by women to throw stones at the camp officials. This also creates pressure on the security forces to be more careful.
TDP: What is the food and water supply like? Medicine? Sanitation? Are international organisations helping with humanitarian needs?
Based on what I saw I think there is enough water, but because the camp is overcrowded it causes problems especially with the water and in the summer. The Red Cross, WHO and UNHCR are there to provide help in addition to the Kurdish administration. They are also in-camp hospitals and health centers being built and mobile health centers set up by the Kurdish Red Crescent, so I don’t think there is a very desperate need, but because of the large number of residents I’m sure from time to time food and water is becoming a problem. International organizations and the local government are there trying to do their best.
However, Kurdish officials are asking for more support from the international community in terms of medicine, hospitals, water and cleaning materials. They also want countries to take back their citizens so that the population of the camp will be reduced.
TDP: There were some reports recently that some women escaped – do you know how? What is internal security like?
I was told the same thing and also read that some people in the Asayish are involved in taking the women out of the camps, but Kurdish officials strongly denied that and said it’s propaganda and their members would never be involved in such a thing because money is nothing for them, and they do this because of their values.
But the way different sources explained it to me is this: The women were allowed to leave the camp before for shopping, and since they all have the black burqa on, they look alike, and when they leave, they never come back because their families arrange a smuggler who is waiting for them in the town. Once these women go out of the camp they change their clothes and they are smuggled out. Since the camp is very large it’s not possible to have 100% control. That’s why the camp administration has now stopped allowing the women to leave for shopping. According to sources it’s arranged by families who pay a large amount of money to smugglers.
Internal security is tight. There are many Asayish forces guarding the camp, and the main gate is also a checkpoint. Before you reach the camp you pass through several checkpoints on the road from Hasakah. After you enter the main gate there’s another gate that’s also well-protected, and visitors are strictly controlled. When you’re inside they give you protection so stabbing incidents won’t happen. With me I think there were four people guarding us.
But again, because of the large area and a huge number of residents it’s not very easy to control the camp, and since you don’t know what’s inside of the tents or what kind of weapons they might have it’s not 100% safe or secured.
Authorities in the al-Hol camp in Syria set up a market called Baghuz in an attempt to counter the smuggling of female ISIS adherents. Image: Mutlu Civiroglu
TDP: Do the families seem to be repentant?
I observed mixed feelings. Some were defiant; for example an Egyptian woman was cursing us. She was using bad language and was very aggressive towards us, and was chanting pro-ISIS slogans. Also Russian-origin ISIS wives were very aggressive, so you see that they’re very motivated by what they’re doing. Some Turkish ISIS families seemed defiant, but at the same time I saw some Azeri women look very regretful. They seemed willing to go back home.
One Tajik woman showed me drawings by her child, saying her son drew their home and they want to go home. And you see people saying they were deceived, especially Dutch and Belgian ISIS wives, they say they believed everyone was equal but realized that the rich lived better lives, and the emirs paid money to smuggle their families out of Baghuz before the SDF took control, but these women ended up in these camps in very tough circumstances.
They were criticizing Baghdadi, saying he was in Libya living a good life but they are like this [in al-Hol], and they want their countries to take them back. When I pressured ed them, saying they had many opportunities to leave and that they came to Syria willingly, they said they are ready to be in prison in their countries, but at least their children would not live in camp conditions. They hoped even when they are in prison, their families will be able to take care of children. They were well-aware that they might spend long years in prison, which I found very interesting.
Because of the tough circumstances in the camp I think going home is a common desire. But to me the most important thing was that the vast majority of the camp residents are children, and especially children under 12. They are on the dirt, they play in dusty alleys – no playground, no sanitizing, under the sun – I think no child should be living under those circumstances, no matter what their parents did. Children have nothing to do with this, so they need to be given the opportunity to play and be a child, to flourish. They need help to get out of this trauma and be de-radicalized and rehabilitated, and the camp is no place for that. They need expert support and psychological support.
I am hoping that the governments will understand that children desperately need help, because if they stay there they will be brainwashed by their mothers. In a few years these children are going to be core ISIS members, so there’s a danger waiting for societies if these kids are not helped as soon as possible.
TDP: Do you think there’s a realistic possibility of a tribunal? Why in North and East Syria rather than the International Criminal Court, or trials in Iraq for foreigners, as with some French citizens who already have been sentenced? The Autonomous Administration isn’t recognized as a government, so how would sentences or verdicts given by the tribunal have any force in international law?
The Autonomous Administration feels like they’re under pressure because there are thousands of ISIS fighters, their wives and children. It’s a heavy burden for them to carry so they need the international community to help them. Especially after the Turkish statements about a military operation inside Syria, there are concerns that such a move may help these people to flee from the prisons and camps. But so far very few countries have taken back their citizens so the problem remains on Kurds’ shoulders and they feel like they need to do something.
The idea of an international tribunal is a step in this direction to push the international community to do more to share the burden with them.
Currently the administration is not recognized officially but a tribunal can be different. The legal experts in International Forum on ISIS conference agreed that there is a base for establishing a tribunal in Rojava because there is already a judicial system, legal experts, lawyers and with the support of the international community a tribunal could be established and it would be a good way to start to find a solution to the huge problem of post-caliphate ISIS.
Again, there are thousands of fighters under SDF control, many of their wives, and tens of thousands of children and they feel like they need to do something because so far the international community is turning a blind eye to the issue.
The caliphate was ended in March. Western countries are not open to the idea to expatriate their citizens. So the problem is with Rojava, with the Syrian Kurds. The attacks show the gravity of the situation, and since nothing is being done, Kurds and their allies feel like they need to take the initiative.
Iraq is motivated to do that in a way to clear its name that was ruined when it was overrun by ISIS. The Iraqi army fled from ISIS and left it for them. But at the same time, Iraq is also driven by the idea of revenge. Numerous ISIS members have already been executed.
The system in Rojava is more progressive and closer to Western systems and it is a better location for an international court because most of the fight was done in Syria. The caliphate’s heart was in Raqqa. Manbij is where the attacks against the West were planned. Kobani is where ISIS was first defeated and ISIS’s unstoppable advance was first prevented. Baghuz was the last remaining stronghold of the caliphate. They’re all in Syria. And the SDF, YPG, YPJ, Syriac Military Council are there so Syria is more suitable than Iraq considering these people have done the work, they have paid the highest price. These people defeated ISIS.
A security gate separates the families from ISIS fighters from displaced Syrians and Iraqis at al-Hol camp. Image: Mutlu Civiroglu
TDP: Are there plans to help the victims of ISIS?
There are some orphanages for the Yazidi children, de-radicalization centers for Yazidi children and other ISIS children, and some villages for Yazidi women who were not accepted back by their communities, but the resources are very limited in the Kurdish parts of Syria. Finances, expert advice and equipment are limited, so there has to be external support. The West especially should step in because the problem is very serious and requires a joint effort by Kurds and the West, especially the countries that are members of the international Coalition. The camps have the support of the international, humanitarian organizations but mainly Kurds are running them. There are great efforts, but it’s not enough.
TDP: Do you see any sign that the International Forum on ISIS conference has influenced foreign countries to change their Syria policies? Will they leave troops in the north, will they take their citizens back?
Such international forums are good venues to understand what’s happening on the ground and hear what people people on the ground – activists, experts, military and political leadership – say. It’s very important. There were representatives from the U.S., France, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other European countries, as well as South Africa. It’s important that people from different backgrounds come and learn about the situation in Syria, ISIS captives, operations against ISIS families, and also share with the local people what their countries think about it. So it’s a good platform for them, and when these people go back they talk to the public, media and think-tanks. I’m optimistic that they’ll have an impact in their own countries.
I think the countries that have a military presence in northern and eastern Syria will continue; I don’t foresee any significant change in the plans of these countries, specifically the U.S., France, Germany and others. They’ll be there because they all know the ISIS threat is not fully resolved yet. The caliphate is ended but the danger, the ideology is there, the support base is there, sleeper cells are there. CENTCOM Commander Kenneth McKenzie and Ambassador William Roebuck’s recent visit shows that the Coalition gives the same importance to Rojava.
The world has almost forgotten Syria. International foreign policy priorities change so rapidly that Syria does not have the same spot it used to have, but ISIS is a global problem and it hasn’t been fully resolved. The resolution needs a global effort. Taking back citizens from Syria is one way of doing that, because the more people who stay there, the more is it is a ticking bomb.
All countries should repatriate their citizens, and they should try these people in their countries. If not, they should support the idea of helping to set up a tribunal in Rojava so that these people can be brought to justice and pay the price for the atrocities they committed. But I think the world is still turning a blind eye, although recently I see more awareness in terms of countries taking back at least the women and children and sentencing them in their own countries instead of keeping them in Syria.
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
ANALİST MUTLU CİVİROĞLU “IŞİD Coğrafi Olarak Bitti, Ama Bir de Uyuyan Hücre Gerçekliği Var”
*Fotoğraflar: Mutlu Civiroğlu/ Suriye
SDG’nin Bağuz operasyonu sonrası “IŞİD’in yenildiği” yönündeki açıklamasının ardından, gelişmelerle ilgili Suriye’de izleyen analist Mutlu Civiroğlu, bianet’e konuştu.
Suriye Demokratik Güçleri (SDG), Cumartesi günü Suriye’de Irak Şam İslam Devleti’nin (IŞİD) yerleşik olarak bulunduğu son yerleşim yeri Bağuz’un da ele geçirildiğini açıkladı.
SDG, IŞİD’in kesin olarak yenildiğini ilan etti. Gelişmeleri yerinde izleyen gazeteci/analist Mutlu Civiroğlu, bianet’e konuştu.
“IŞİD’in kendini hilafet olarak adlandırdığı yapı bitti”
SDG’nin Bağuz’daki başarısını nasıl değerlendiriyorsunuz? Suriye için IŞİD’den yüzde 100 özgürleştirildi demek doğru bir ifade mi?
SDG’nin Bağuz’daki başarısı tabii ki çok önemli. Uzunca yıllar Irak’ta ve Suriye’de etkili olan bir örgütün Bağuz’daki bulunduğu son bölgede sona erdirilmiş oldu.
Bu IŞİD’in kendini hilafet olarak adlandırdığı yapının bitmesi anlamına geliyor. Oldukça önemli bir başarı. Hem SDG için, hem uluslararası koalisyon için önemli bir başarı.
Saklanan bir grup IŞİD üyesi en son yakalandı ve kalanı teslim oldu. Şu anda coğrafi olarak alan kalmadı. YPG’nin başını çektiği SDG bütün bu alanları özgürleştirmiş oldu.
Yüzde 100 özgürleştirildi denilebilir mi? Bu operasyonla IŞİD’in elinde tuttuğu alan kalmadı. Ama IŞİD’in yüzde 100 bittiği anlamına gelmiyor bu. Çünkü IŞİD’in ideolojisi halen mevcut. IŞİD’i doğuran siyasi, sosyolojik, ekonomik, tarihsel nedenler özellikle Suriye bağlamında konuştuğumuz için söylüyorum, yerinde duruyor.
Uluslararası koalisyonun artık bu saatten sonraki gündemi bu özgürleştirilen yerlerde istikrarın sağlanması olacak. Özellikle uyuyan hücreler konusu ciddi bir konu. Hem Deyr-ez Zor bölgesinde hem Haseke’de, hem Halep, Menbiç, Rakka bölgelerinde bir uyuyan hücre gerçekliği var.
IŞİD’e yardım yataklık yapmış bölgelerin özgürleştirilmesi için operasyona başlanacak. Coğrafi olarak IŞİD yüzde 100 bitirildi ama siyasi, askeri ve toplumsal bir sorun olarak duruyor. Bunun hem SDG hem de uluslararası koalisyon farkında.
Onlardan gelen açıklamalardan da görüyoruz ki, zaten sahadaki görüşmelerimizde de artık Bağoz’dan sonra gündemin bu olacağını görüyoruz. Şu anda coğrafi olarak IŞİD bitirildiği için, aslında olay çok daha kapsamlı ve çok daha zor.
Düşman belli bir coğrafyadayken, siz de ona göre mücadelenizi şekillendiriyorsunuz. Ama şu anda bahsettiğimiz mücadele çok daha yorucu ve zahmetli bir süreç. Böyle bir aşama olmadan da IŞİD’in hilafetinin sona ermesi bir şey ifade etmeyecek.
“SDG tarafından verilen bedel çok ağır”
IŞİD’in bölgede yenilmesinin ardından AFP ajansına verdiğiniz demeçte de “Kürtleri iki taraftan da (Suriye-Türkiye) zorlu bir süreç beklediğini” söylüyorsunuz. Bölge Kürtleri açısından önümüzdeki dönemde en büyük problemler ne olabilir?
Suriye Kürtleri, SDG Genel Komutanı Mazlum Kobani’nin deyimiyle 11 bin kayıp verdiler. IŞİD ve diğer örgütlerle mücadelelerde 20 bin yaralı var. Verilen bedel çok ağır. Ama dünya da bu başarıyı gördü. Özellikle Suriye’de Kürtlerin oynadığı asli rol görüldü.
Uluslararası koalisyonun yükünü çeken SDG’ydi. Bu yüzden bedel ödediler ve Suriye içerisinde kendi yarattıklarını korumak istiyorlar.
Suriye’de dışarıdan bir formülün tutmadığı da görüldü. Kürtlerin, Arapların, Ezidilerin, Kürt Alevilerin beraber oluşturduğu bu yapılanma hem kendi halkları için hem de Suriye’nin geneli için bir model teşkil ediyor.
Kürtler, bu kazanımlarını siyasi alanda geliştirme çabasında olacaklar. Kürtlerin özellikle Cenevre görüşmelerinde var olma isteği var. IŞİD’in coğrafi olarak bitirilmesinden sonra Kürtlerin bu taraflarının daha çok başarı görebileceği düşünülebilir.
Bedel ödediler, sahada projeleri var. Yerelden güçlenen ve her etnik yapının kendi özgürlüğü içinde yaşayabilecekleri bir süreç istiyorlar. O sebeple siyasi açıdan Kürtlerin öncelikleri bu olacak.
Üç hafta önce ben oradaydım. Oradaki siyasi, askeri yetkililerle yaptığımız görüşmelerde Türkiye’nin bölgeye yönelik açıklamaları çok kaygı verici boyutlarda, ciddi tehdit olarak algılanmakta, onu gördük.
Önümüzdeki günlerde Türkiye’nin olası bir saldırgan tutumu ya da olası bir operasyon onların gündeminde ilk sırada. Sadece Kürtler değil bunu Araplar da, Süryaniler de görüyor.
Özellikle Afrin’de Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri ve Türkiye destekli grupların Afrin’i ele geçirdiği dönemden sonra yaşananlar, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International gibi kurumların da dile getirdiği gibi Suriye’nin Kürt bölgelerinde ve SDG’nin kontrol ettiği bölgelerde büyük bir rahatsızlık yaratmış durumda. Aynı pratiklerin tekrarlanma ihtimali kaygı yaratıyor.
“Etnik kimliklerin anayasal güvence altına alınması bekleniyor”
O sebeple Kürtlerin, Arapların, Süryanilerin, Ezidilerin en büyük kaygısı Türkiye’nin kendi bölgelerine bir saldırı düzenlemeleri, buna karşı hazırlıkları da var zaten.
Öte yandan Suriye rejiminin halen, bunca yıldır devam eden iç savaştaki tutumunda bir değişiklik olmadığı da görülüyor. Halen Suriye’yi tek bir ulustan oluşan, tek bir ideolojinin yönetebileceği düşünülüyor. Kürtlerin kontrol ettiği toprakların seve seve ya da zorla alınacağı yönünde açıklamalar yapılıyor.
Ülkenin en büyük azınlığı olarak kendi yaşama taleplerine saygı gösterilmesi, Suriye’nin demir yumrukla yönetilemeyeceğinin anlaşılması, Suriye’nin etnik farklılıklarına uygun yeni bir anayasa oluşturulması, Kürt dilinin tanınması, Kürtçe eğitimin önünün açılması, Kürt ve diğer kimliklerin anayasal güvence altına alınması bekleniyor.
İstihbarat raporu: Ağları hala çok geniş*Büyütmek için tıklayın. ABD İstihbarat yetkilileri Şubat ayının ilk günlerinde kongreye sundukları “Küresel Risk Değerlendirme” raporunda “IŞİD’in kayda değer derecede liderlik ve bölge kaybına rağmen hala Irak ve Suriye’deki binlerce savaşçıya komuta ettiğini, bu savaşçıların sekiz ayrı dala (örgüte) ayrıldığını ve dünya çapında binlerce destekçisi olduğunu” kaydetmişti. İstihbarat raporunda ayrıca IŞİD’in Suriye ve Irak’taki “normalleşme çabalarını sarsmak için saldırı hazırlıklarında olduğu, mezhep çatışmasını artırma hedefinde olduğu” ifadeleri kullanıldı. TIKLAYIN – ABD istihbaratının kongreye sunduğu Küresel Risk Değerlendirme raporu |
(PT) Pınar Tarcan
Özgürlüğe yakışıklı girmek istedim
DAİŞ’in köle olarak alıkoyduğu Êzîdî çocukları bir bir kurtarılıp ailelerine teslim ediliyor. Ednan, Kînan, Walîd kurtarılan çocuklardan sadece üçü. Kînan, özgürlüğe takım elbise ve kravatla adım atarken, Ednan QSD’nin DAİŞ’ten kurtardığı annesiyle buluşacağı günü iple çekiyor.
Babası Şengal Katliamı’nda katledilen Kînan, annesi ile birlikte DAİŞ çetelerince köle olarak kaçırıldı. Ancak annesi bir patlamada yaşamını yitirdi. Ebû Saed isimli DAİŞ çetesinin İdlib’e kadar kaçırıp 30 bin dolar karşılığı amcasına teslim ettiği Kînan, gazetecilerin karşısına takım elbise ve kravatla çıkıyor ve ekliyor: “Özgürlüğümün ilk günlerinde yakışıklı görünmek istedim.”
DAİŞ çetelerinin kıstırıldığı son toprak parçası Baxoz’da, 3 Ağustos 2014’teki Şengal Katliamı tekrar gündeme getiren gelişmeler yaşanıyor. Kaçırılan Êzîdî kadınlar ve köleleştirilen çocukların trajik öyküleri çıkıyor karşımıza.
Ednan, Kînan, Walîd… Üç çocuğun da babası katledilmiş ve anneleriyle kaçırılmış. Kînan ve Walîd’in anneleri ise DAİŞ’in kontrolündeki bölgelerde yaşanan patlamalarda hayatını kaybetmiş.
Ednan onlara göre biraz daha şanslı, bir süre önce annesi de QSD savaşçıları tarafından özgürleştirilmiş ve şimdi bir birlerine kavuşacakları anı sabırsızlıkla bekliyorlar.
Ednan annesine kavuşuyor
Gazeteci Mutlu Çiviroğlu önceki gün Twitter hesabından DAİŞ tarafından kaçırılan ve QSD savaşçılarınca kurtarılan Êzîdî bir çocuğun görüntülerini paylaşarak, söz çocuğun ailesine bir an önce kavuşmasını umduğunu söyledi.
Aynı gün akşam saatlerinde Êzîdîlere ait Ezidipress internet sitesi DAİŞ’in elinden kurtarılan çocuğun annesine kavuştuğunu duyurdu.
Çiviroğlu paylaştığı görüntüde çocuğun ismini sorması üzerine, “Benim adım Ednan” diyor. Ezidipress yetkilileri de çocuğun annesine ulaşarak oğlunun kurtarıldığının haberini veriyor. Haberi duyan anne mutluluk gözyaşları döküyor. Ezidipress Ednan’ın annesinin, QSD savaşçıları ile Mutlu Çiviroğlu’na teşekkür ettiğine de yer verdi.
DAİŞ çeteleri 3 Ağustos 2014 Şengal’de Êzîdî Kürtlere yönelik gerçekleştirdikleri soykırım saldırısında Ednan’ın babasını katletti. Çeteler, annesi ve kendisini de köle olarak götürdü. Annesinin de bir süre önce DAİŞ’ten kurtarıldığı belirtiliyor.
DAİŞ’in köle olarak kaçırdığı Êzîdî çocuğu Kînan, “Çok ölü gördüm, katledilen çok insan gördüm” diyor.
Kînan ömrünün tam yarısını DAİŞ’in zorbalığının altında geçirmiş. Bir süre önce QSD savaşçılarınca kurtarılmış. Fransız radyo kanalı France İnfo’nun haberine göre, Ebû Sead isimli DAİŞ çetesi sivillerin arasında küçük Kînan’i de yanına alarak Baxoz’dan kaçarak İdlib’e gitmiş. Şengal Katliamı’nda Kînan’ın babası da katledilenler arasında. DAİŞ’in yanında yaşadığı kabusu ise Kînan, “Ben çok ölü gördüm, DAİŞ’lilerin eliyle katledilen insanlar… Bizi çok dövüyorlardı. Babamı haksız yere öldürdüler” şeklinde bir çırpıda özetliyor.
Şık bir şekilde radyo muhabirleriyle görüşmesi, dikkat çekmiş.
Bir iki boy büyük de olsa takım elbise giymiş ve kravat takmış. Şık giyinmeyi de “Özgürlüğümün ilk günlerinde yakışıklı görünmek istedim” sözleriyle ifade ediyor.
Büyük ablasını DAİŞ’liler tarafından satılmış. Annesi ise Baxoz’da yaşanan bir patlamada yaşamanı yitirmiş. Küçük Kînan annesinin ölümünden sonra Ebû Saed’in kendisini, hiç bir sebep yokken de dövmeye başladığını söylüyor.
DAİŞ çeteleri Kürtçeyi yasakladıkları için Kînan da bir çok Êzîdî çocuğu gibi 5 yıl içerisinde ana dilini tamamen unutmuş.
Baxoz, QSD savaşçılarınca kuşatmaya alındığı süreçte Ebû Saed İd lib’e kaçmaya karar vermiş. Kînan’ın amcası Ebû Saed’e ulaşarak Kînan’i almaya çalışmış. Ebû Saed amcasından aldığı 30 bin dolar karşılığı Kînan’ı bırakıyor, O da 5 gün sonra Güney Kürdistan’daki amcasına ulaşıyor.
Walid de kurtarıldı
France İnfo muhaberleri göre Kînan ve amcası ile görüşürken, amcasının telefonuna bir mesaj ile fotoğraf düşüyor. QSD savaşçıları 9 yaşında bir çocuğu kurtarmış. Adı Walid ancak DAİŞ çeteleri ona Ebdul Haman ismini vermiş.
Onun da babası DAİŞ çetelerince katledilmiş ve onun da annesi Kînan’ın annesi gibi bir patlamada ölmüş. Şimdi Walid de kurtarılan ve annesine kavuşma anını iple çeken Ednan gibi emin ellerde ve özgür…
DÊRAZOR/PARİS
Baxoz’da 6’sı çocuk 8 Êzîdî kurtarıldı
Demokratik Suriye Güçleri (QSD), DAİŞ çetelerine karşı final savaşının yürütüldüğü Baxoz’da 6’sı çocuk olmak üzere 8 Êzîdî’yi daha kurtardı. Alınan bilgilere göre, QSD savaşçıları Baxoz’daki operasyon sırasında 8 Êzîdî’yi daha kurtararak güvenli alanlara ulaştırdı. Kurtarılanlar 6 çocuk ve 2 kadından oluşuyor. Operasyonda kurtarılan kadınların, T. S. ve E. M. olduğu öğrenilirken, çocukların isimleri ise şöyle: Eymen Xelil Heci, Dilbirîn Celer, Xeyri Şeref, Musa Hadi, Ayşe, İbrahim.
ANF/BAXOZ
Li Washingtonê projeya Rojava
Hevseroka MSD´ê Ilham Ehmed li Washigtonê di panelekê de got, ew alîkariyê ji bo projeya xwe ya siyasî dixwazin û divê ew di nava çareseriyeke siyasî de cihê xwe bigirin.
Bi organîzasyona ARCDEM´ê (Navenda Rojava a ji bo Demokrasiyê ya Emerîkî) bi navê “Piştî DAIŞ´ê? Bakurê Sûriyê li ber duriyanekê” li paytexta Emerîkayê Washingtonê panelek bi rê ve çû. Di vê panelê de Hevseroka Meclîsa Sûriyeya Demokratîk (MSD) Îlham Ehmed, ji zanîngeha Columbiayê Prof. David L. Phillips, analîstê ji Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Nicholas A. Heras û nivîskara pirtûka “Nearamiya Civakî û Baregehên Eskerî yên Emerîkî li Tirkiye û Elmanyayê ji 1945´an ve” Amy Austin Holmes weke qiseker amade bûn. Rojnamevan û analîstê siyasî Mutlu Çiviroglu moderatoriya panelê kir. Li mekanê panelê Press Club a li paytexta DYE´yê, gelek kes û rojnamevan amade bûn.
Destekê bidin projeya me ya siyasî
Hevseroka MSD´ê Ilham Ehmed axaftina destpêkê ya di panelê de kir û got, “Li Sûriyê niha krîzek heye, û ev krîz kûrtir bû. Em projeyeke nû ji bo Sûriyeke nenavendî pêşniyaz dikin û em hez dikin vê projeyê li tevahiya welêt pêk bînin.”
Ilham Ehmed ji bo dewra Tirkiyeyê li Sûriyê eşkere peyivî û got, “Dewleta Tirk li Sûriyê bi roleke gelekî xirab rabû. Li Efrînê wan komkujî kirin. Pirraniya xelkê Efrînê bi darê zorê koçber kirin. Wan çete û malbatên wan anîn Efrînê û demografî guherand. Wan mal û milkê xelkê dizî û dest avêt jinan.”
Îlham Ehmed navê terorîzmê li van kirinên dewleta Tirk kir: “Em dizanin ku ya Tirkiye dike terorîzm bi xwe ye. Îro, ya em dibêjin ew e ku divê ewlekarî û aramiya herêma me bê parastin. Ya ku em dibêjin ev e; me ewlekariya dinyayê parast (li dijî DAIŞ´ê), em xwe ji bo ewlekariya mirovahiyê berpirsiyar dibînin. Pêdiviya me bi alîkariya wan welatan heye ku me ew parastin.”
Ka ev alîkarî wê alîkariyeke çawa be jî, ji van gotinên Îlham Ehmed diyar bû: “Pêdiviya me bi alîkariya ji bo projeya me ya siyasî heye. Divê em di çareseriyeke siyasî de hebin. Destûrnedana beşdarbûna me di pêvajoya Cenevreyê de zexmkirina krîzê ye, zexmkirina şer e.”
Tenê QSD dikare bi DAIŞ´ê
Nicholas A. Heras di panelê de got, “Ya ku li vir em behsa wê dikin tevgerek e ku hewl dide gelêrî be û bersivê bide daxwazên gel. Li ber çavê me, ha vê kêliyê ya ku em dibînin, bi gewdebûna îdeala sivaka demokratîk e.” Li gorî wî, ji bilî QSD´ê jî ti hêza din wê nikaribe li dijî DAIŞ´ê herêmê biparêze: “Ti hêzeke din a cihî û bikêrhatî (ji bilî QSD´ê) nîne ku karibe ji nû ve derketina holê ya DAIŞ´ê asteng bike.”
Amy Austin Holmes jî îşaret bi girîngiya têkbirina daîmî ya DAIŞ´ê kir û got, “Rêya herî muhim a misogerkirina şikandina daîmî ya DAIŞ´ê ew e ku bê misogerkirin ku îdeolojiya tundraw a Îslamî bê têkbirin.”
WASHINGTON
Personal Website of Mutlu Civiroglu 