Meghan Bodette
US Special Envoy to Syria Joel Rayburn defended Turkish policy in northern Syria and downplayed human rights and governance concerns in Turkish-controlled areas in a Wednesday hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The hearing made it clear that little would change in the final months of Trump’s presidency—and that Congress remains far more willing to question Turkey’s role in the conflict than the executive branch is.
It also raised concerns that Trump’s Syria team will continue to obscure key facts about the situation on the ground in their communications with the legislative branch, recalling former envoy James Jeffrey’s similar performance in hearings following the October 2019 invasion of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad.
Rep. Mike McCaul, the committee’s highest-ranking Republican, expressed concerns about the presence of former ISIS members and other extremists in Turkish-backed Syrian National Army forces.
In response, Rayburn said he had no evidence of former ISIS members in Turkish-controlled areas. However, the Rojava Information Center has documented the presence of dozens of former ISIS members in areas occupied during Operation Olive Branch in Afrin and Operation Peace Spring in Sere Kaniye.
Militia members without formal links to ISIS often espouse similar radical values to the terror group— particularly in their treatment of Kurds, religious minorities, and women.
Women in Turkish-occupied areas are frequently harassed and threatened if they leave their homes without adhering to strict conservative dress codes. Several militias have destroyed Afrin’s Yezidi shrines, and demanded that the remaining Yezidi population convert to Islam. Recently, Sham Legion hosted a US-designated al-Qaeda leader at its Afrin headquarters.
While Rayburn claimed that the United States raises concerns about extremism with Turkey, the fact that violations persist suggests that these limited US efforts have not had a concrete impact on how Turkey or the Syrian National Army behave on the ground.
Rayburn also told members of the Committee that the SNA was primarily focused on fighting the Syrian government and its allies—another claim that is not backed up by reality.
The Syrian National Army’s most prominent military campaigns have targeted the Syrian Democratic Forces. It has only taken territory from the SDF while engaging in Turkish military operations, while making no territorial gains against government forces.
In the past year, hundreds of SNA fighters have signed up to fight as mercenaries in Libya and Azerbaijan. These conflicts have no relation to Syria’s war, but do fulfill important objectives for the Turkish government—evidence that the group operates more like a Turkish proxy force than anything else.
According to the SETA Foundation, a pro-AKP think tank, several of the SNA’s component militias have never fought against the Syrian government at all, but have fought against the SDF. A SNA commander was arrested earlier this year for initiating clashes with government forces outside of Turkish orders.
In response to two separate questions from Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Rep. David Trone, Rayburn downplayed the threat of forced deportations Syrian refugees from Turkey, claiming that Turkish authorities believe in “safe” and “dignified” returns.
However, human rights monitors have long said otherwise. While Turkey has taken in large numbers of refugees, Syrians in the country face racism, discrimination, and an increasing threat of forcible deportations to Syria’s most dangerous war zones.
Amnesty International reported in 2019 that “Turkey’s practice of forcibly returning refugees to Syria, where their lives are at risk, is a dangerous and illegal practice that must end.” Among the victims they interviewed was a Christian man who was abducted by al-Nusra, an Islamist group, after his deportation.
A detailed report from the Syria Justice and Accountability Center described how thousands of refugees were sent back to besieged Idlib province in the year 2020 alone, often on the grounds that they had committed minor offenses such as working without a difficult-to-obtain permit.
As a political appointee with close ties to the Trump administration, Rayburn is likely to be replaced as Syria envoy after President-Elect Joe Biden assumes office in January. Biden should choose an envoy who understands Turkey’s role in Syria and is willing to be honest about governance, humanitarian, and security challenges regardless of the perpetrator.