Trump tweet ‘paves the road for ethnic cleansing’: Syrian Kurdish authorities
Turkey invaded northeast Syria with the goal of clearing the area of Kurds and Trump is enabling this, the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria said in a Facebook post today.
“The latest statement by Mr. Trump, that Kurds have been resettled in new areas, paves the road for ethnic cleansing, which Turks aim to do,” read the post.
Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies attacked autonomous administration territory on October 9 to remove the main military force there, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which it considers a terrorist organization, from its border. Turkey also seeks to resettle Syrian refugees in Turkey in SDF territory, which Kurds say constitutes forced demographic change.
The operation, which led to more than 300,000 Kurds, Arabs and Christians being displaced, prompted the US to broker a ceasefire between the two sides, which both are accused of violating.
Trump said the ceasefire is going well in a tweet today, and made a reference to Kurds being resettled elsewhere in Syria, which drew the ire of Kurdish officials.
“The ceasefire is holding up very nicely. There are some minor skirmishes that have ended quickly. New areas being resettled with Kurds. U.S. soldiers are not in combat or ceasefire zone. We have secured the Oil.” Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense. Ending endless wars!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2019
Trump said he was quoting US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, though a Reuters journalist present when Esper spoke to reporters today denied Esper said what Trump said he had.
The SDF announced today it evacuated the border town of Sari Kani in a bid to adhere to the ceasefire.
The US reached the ceasefire deal with Turkey on Thursday after a few hours of negotiations. The pause in hostilities was to last 120 hours, roughly five days, in return for Kurdish forces to withdraw with their forces 32 kilometers deep into Syria.
The optimistic tone of Trump’s tweet angered Kurdish officials in Syria, who said the ceasefire was not going smoothly at all.
“(We) follow with astonishment the statements of the American President, who claims that the temporary ceasefire is proceeding successfully,” the autonomous administration said in its post. “We affirm that Turkey and its mercenaries did absolutely not commit to the agreement and more than once violated it.”
“Through three days of temporary ceasefire between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkish side with American mediation, Turkish killing machine and its mercenaries did not stop from its military attacks against our forces as 25 fighters were martyred and 17 were injured.”
The civilians who have now been displaced due to the fighting from Sari Kani, Gire Spi and elsewhere “have to return with international guarantees, and this area needs to be under international protection,” according to the administration, saying “otherwise, Turkey will eradicate our people, and America has to fully bear responsibility for this matter.”
The UK-based and pro-Syrian opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) was unhappy about Trump’s tweets as well, and urged against demographic change in the area in a post on their website.
“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights calls on the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria… to reveal to Syrian public and the area’s residents the true content of the agreement between the United States and Turkey and its sections,” the SOHR said on Sunday.
“The Syrian Observatory warns against any demographic change operation of the area’s people, especially after the withdrawal of the Syrian Democratic Forces from the Ras al-Ain (Sari Kani) area based on a Turkish-American agreement,” the watchdog added.