QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – It is very disappointing that the US government is quiet right now. However, I have been privately assured by some in the US government that they have not given a green light to any military action in northeast Syria, said Nadine Maenza, former chair of USCIRF in an exclusive interview with North Press.
Over the years, Turkey has always used to create pretexts to launch offensives on the region of north and northeast Syria which has been held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) since 2014. However, the Turkish pretexts have been uncovered and cannot convince local and international points of view.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the SDF defeated ISIS militarily there.
Following the explosion that hit Taksim Square at the heart of Turkey’s Istanbul in which six persons were killed and 80 others were injured, Turkish authorities had a version claiming that a Syrian woman called Ahlam al-Bashir a suspected to have carried out the attack entered the country with another person four months prior.
The Turkish authorities claim the Syrian woman was affiliated with the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and trained and received instructions from Kobani adding that she entered the country through Afrin in northwest Syria.
The Istanbul blast came as a weak and ridiculous show even for the Turks themselves. Turkish regime, led by Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, used to use such pretexts to launch offensives against the Kurds – civilians and military personnel – in both north and northeast Syria and in northern Iraq.
Turkey uses UN’s Article 51 to occupy Syrian areas
The Turkish regime used to exploit Article 51 of the UN Charter to occupy areas in northern Syria. The Article includes, “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.”
Under this article, the Turkish regime launched three military invasions on north and northeast Syria since 2016 and has occupied several areas.
In 2016, it launched the so-called “Euphrates Shield” operation along with its affiliated SNA (formerly Free Syrian Army-FSA) which resulted in the occupation of the cities of al-Bab and Jarablus in the eastern countryside of Aleppo Governorate.
In 2018, the Turkish forces and the SNA factions launched the so-called “Olive Branch” operation against the city of Afrin in the north of Aleppo to push the YPG away from Turkey’s borer under the pretext of protecting its national security. As a result, about 300.000 original inhabitants have been displaced.
In 2019, they launched the “Peace Spring” operation against the two cities of Tel Abyad in the north of Raqqa Governorate and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in the north of Hasakah, which resulted in the occupation of the two cities and the displacement of their original inhabitants.
Since November 20, 2022, Turkish air force has launched intense airstrikes on all AANES-held areas on Syrian-Turkish border in addition to bombarding areas which are more than 40 km away from the border such as the Global Coalition military base and Hawl Camp in Hasakah and the village of Makman in the northern countryside of Deir ez-Zor.
US position from Trump to Biden
In an interview with the American POLITICO on November 23, Commander in Chief of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, expressed his belief that US President Joe Biden should live up to promises made during his presidential campaign not to betray the Kurds.
During his presidential campaign when he was vice president in 2019, Biden released a statement on the consequences of the then president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from northeast Syria, saying, “Donald Trump sold out the Syrian Democratic Forces — the courageous Kurds and Arabs who fought with us to smash ISIS’s caliphate — and he betrayed a key local ally in the fight against terrorism. But that’s not all — he betrayed our brave troops, who sacrificed alongside them. He betrayed our word as a nation — raising doubts among our allies around the world about America’s security commitments. And he betrayed our security by green lighting a Turkish incursion that will create chaos and destruction, setting conditions for ISIS to regrow.”
Despite pledges of the American officials and the agreement of the Turkish delegation, US delegation and the SDF on the “Security Mechanism” at the time, Trump announced that he made his decision to withdraw the US forces from the border areas in northeast Syria, paving the way for the Turkish incursion into Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad on October 9, 2019.
Days after the operation, namely October 14, Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on Turkey for its military operation in Syria. However, this was senseless for the people of northeast Syria because he [Trump] himself gave Turkey the green light to invade the region.
Now, the people of northeast Syria fear the repetition of the same scenario and that Biden may abandon them and leave them alone to be a prey for Turkish aggression especially amid US silence or – one can say – lack of strong position regarding the Turkish escalation except for few statements.
On November 24, the US Department of Defense (DOD) expressed deep concern over escalation occurring in northern Syria, and sent solaces to families of civilian victims in Syria.
The US Department of State urged Turkey on November 22 to de-escalate and to focus on fighting ISIS, saying, “We urge de-escalation in Syria to protect civilian life and support the common goal of defeating ISIS.”
Also, the US Embassy in Damascus tweeted “We urge de-escalation and above all protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
In an exclusive statement to North Press on November 22, the US State Department spokesperson said the recent Turkish operations could undermine the campaign against ISIS and put civilians’ lives at risk.
“We have consistently communicated our serious concerns to Turkey, in public and private. … We have urged Turkey against such operations, just as we have urged our Syrian partners against attacks or escalation,” he added.
Repeated threats
The Turkish president announced on May 23 that Turkey would launch a new military operation across its southern borders with Syria to create a “safe zone”.
The Turkish “safe zone” is an area of 30-35 km (19-22 miles) deep into Syrian territory that Turkey started establishing in 2019 to settle Syrian refugees in an area along its border with Syria, as well as to keep it free from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which it regards as terrorists.
A year ago, Erdogan started launching threats to invade areas in northern Syria under the pretext of “rooting out terrorism”. He said in October 2021 referring to the town of Tel Rifaat in Aleppo northern countryside, “We are determined to eliminate the threats originating from those areas.”
“Our fight against them will continue in a very different way, we will battle against those organizations supported by either the US or the regime forces, and we are insisting on this issue,” Anadolu Agency cited Erdogan as saying in October 11, 2021.
Commenting on the threats, political analyst Tim Hogan said in August 2021, “Erdogan was testing Biden’s administration by taking advantage of the US preoccupation in Afghanistan, as he did with the former US President Donald Trump when he managed to take over new Syrian regions and hand them over to militias close to al-Qaeda and ISIS in 2019.”
Measures taken by Biden administration
In December 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allocated $177 million for 2022 to fund forces fighting ISIS.
Biden signed the NDAA bill into law with $768 billion after the Senate and the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the resolution in favor of the decision.
In October 2021, the US president extended sanctions on Turkey for another year. The sanctions were first imposed by Trump on October 14, 2019, and it included a number of senior Turkish officials, including both the Ministers of Defense and Energy.
“The actions of the Turkish government, represented in the military offensive in northeastern Syria, undermine the campaign to defeat ISIS,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement published by the White House on its official website.
In mid-October, US President Biden declared the extension of the national emergency with respect to the situation in Syria, especially the Turkish threats to launch a possible operation against northern Syria, for one more year.
“The situation in and in relation to Syria, and in particular the actions by the Government of Turkey to conduct a military offensive into northeast Syria, undermines the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS,” a briefing by the White House read.
In November 2021, the former US Special Envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, confirmed that President Biden did not give Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a green light to launch a new attack on north and northeast Syria.
Jeffrey made it clear that Washington would not abandon the partnership with the SDF.
Jeffrey’s statement came following threats by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan where he announced that his country insists on countering organizations that he said to be backed by the US in Syria and the Syrian authorities.
In July 2021, a US official preferred not to be named, told POLITICO that Biden’s administration would keep 900 troops in Syria and would continue supporting the SDF against ISIS.
The US deployed its first batch of American Special Forces to Syria in October 2015 in the first explicit American intervention since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011.
To conclude, people of north Syria including all its communities – Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Syriacs, Turkmen, Armenians and others – are watching cautiously to see what will happen in the near future.