Table of Contents
UNDERSTANDING FROM BASICS
- U.S Initially intervened in Syria to get rid of Bashar Al-Assad
TROOP DEPLOYMENT
- On September 23, 2014, the US and Arab allies launch air raids in Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group, expanding a campaign under way in neighbouring Iraq.
- The biggest contributor to the coalition, Washington deploys 2,000 soldiers, mostly special forces.
- In October 2015, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Syrian Arab alliance of some 50,000 fighters, is created with US backing.
WHO ARE THE KURDS?
- Known as one of the largest ethnic group without a state, some 25-35 million Kurds are spread across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Armenia
A FAMOUS KURD
VICTORY OF THE KURDS
- Dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, it receives US training and aid in the form of arms, air support and intelligence.
- The SDF later overruns ISIL in north-eastern Syria, driving out the jihadists from their last patch of territory in the village of Baghouz in March 2019.
WHY TURKEY WANTS A MILITARY ASSAULT ON SYRIAN KURDS
- Turkey considers the Kurdish YPG, the main component of the SDF, a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a nearly four-decade war for Kurdish rights against the Turkish state.
WHY TURKEY WANTS A MILITARY ASSAULT ON SYRIAN KURDS
- Turkey fears Syrian Kurdish gains will embolden its own Kurdish population and create a PKK-statelet on its border. The combined military, political and territorial strengths of the Syrian Kurds give them a major bargaining chip in any political solution in Syria. They are demanding recognition of Kurdish rights and decentralization of state power. Turkey seeks to prevent this development.
WHAT DO THE KURDS SAY?
- Syrian Kurds are warning of ethnic cleansing and demographic engineering of areas along the border.
WHY ISN’T SYRIA ANGRY ABOUT THIS?
- Bashar al-Assad wants the nationalistic Kurds to be removed as they pose a threat to Syrian government as well
HOW INDIA REACTED?
THE UNITED NATIONS
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said any military operation must fully respect the UN Charter and international humanitarian law.
- Spokesman Farhan Haq said: “Civilians and civilian infrastructure should be protected. The secretarygeneral believes that there’s no military solution to the Syrian conflict.”
EGYPT
- Egypt’s foreign ministry condemned the offensive as “a blatant and unacceptable attack on the sovereignty of a brotherly Arab state”.
- It called for an emergency meeting of the League of Arab States.
SAUDI ARABIA
- Saudi Arabia said the offensive would undermine the region’s security and the battle against ISIL.
- The Turkish army’s “aggression” would have “negative repercussions on the security and stability of the region”, the foreign ministry said on Twitter.
- It would also “undermine international efforts to fight the Islamic State terrorist group”.
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