Breitbart Turkey “is continuing its genocide war” in northern Syria despite an allegedly “permanent” ceasefire, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-allied coalition largely made up of Kurdish fighters, alleged on Thursday.
Turkey invaded Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in early October as part of “Operation Peace Spring,” a plan to eradicate the indigenous Kurdish presence of that territory to create a “safe zone” for mostly Arab Syrian refugees stranded in Turkey. The SDF and associated Kurdish administrators have condemned the plan as a form of ethnic cleansing, as the end goal would be a dramatic demographic change for the region.
After hours of discussion this week, Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged from a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with the announcement of an agreement: the Russians would secure Kurdish areas and Turkey agreed to end the invasion if the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) left those areas.
Turkey considers the YPG indistinguishable from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a U.S.-designated Marxist terrorist organization active in southern Turkey. YPG fighters comprise a large percentage of the SDF and did much of the work in annihilating the Islamic State “caliphate” in Syria. The SDF expelled ISIS from Raqqa, its “capital,” in 2018 with U.S. air support.
Turkey has for years stood accused of harboring ISIS terrorists and giving them easy access to the Syrian war theater.
“Operation Peace Spring” is a joint operation with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a coalition of mostly Arab fighters created to wage war against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad with significant help from former President Barack Obama. Reports indicate many FSA militants came from the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda, the former Nusra Front (currently Jabhat Fatah al-Sham) and Kurdish fighters have published videos showing jihadists desecrating the corpses of fallen Kurdish fighters.
SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel issued a statement Thursday accusing Turkey of failing to abide by the “permanent ceasefire.”
“Despite the commitment of our forces to the cease-fire agreement and their withdrawal from all the cease-fire region, Turkish government with its allied terrorist factions are still violating the cease-fire agreement and still continuing its genocide war against our people and our lands,” Gabriel said. “The terrorist factions with Turkish supporting and backing have waged early this morning a vast ground attack on Almanajir, Alasadyah, and Almusherfah villages which are outside the ceasefire region.”
Gabriel added that the SDF will exercise its “legitimate right to self-defense” and urges America “to intervene immediately.”
“Operation Peace Spring” began immediately after President Donald Trump announced he would withdraw troops from Rojava. The president has congressional authorization only to use military force against al-Qaeda and affiliated groups, as per a 2001 Congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). As ISIS is not present in Rojava, Trump had no legal authority to keep troops there.
With the FSA’s return, Trump could potentially argue that troops can legally fight against the Turkish forces if proof definitively proves those fighting with Turkish forces are members of an al-Qaeda offshoot.
The SDF counted three dead – including a female fighter whose “body was kidnapped by the mercenaries” – and four wounded, but managed to kill “at least 31 mercenaries,” by which they mean members of the FSA. There is no evidence that the Kurds have managed to kill any members of the formal Turkish military at press time.