The Future of the Kurdish People… - Seeker's Thoughts

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The Future of the Kurdish People…

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 ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, officially known as the Islamic State haunted the world since 2014 when the organization gained international attention after it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities of Iraqi government forces.  
 
ISIS captured later Mosul, and abducted thousands of Yazidi men in Sinjar, and killed them. This was to push most of the Kurds out of strategic Yazidi areas.
A civilian reported that on 3 August 2014 alone, 2,000 Yazidis had been killed throughout the Sinjar District. A Yazidi member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq said that between 2 and 5 August, 500 Yazidi men had been killed in the city of Sinjar by ISIL, women had been killed or sold into slavery, and 70 children had died from thirst or suffocation while fleeing the ISIL advance.

On August 8th 2014, the United State reacted with air strike on ISIL against its brutalities.  

The assistance of PKK and YPG enabled the majority of the 50,000 Yazidis who fled into the Sinjar Mountains to be evacuated. 
The PKK is a rebel group of Kurds Kurdistan Workers; Party) also known as PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan) .  
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On 17 December 2014, the Kurdish Peshmerga, PKK (Kurds Kurdistan Workers) and YPG forces started the December 2014 Sinjar offensive with the support of US airstrikes.
This offensive broke ISIL's troop transport routes and supply lines between Mosul and Raqqa, the largest ISIL-controlled cities in Iraq and Syria at the time. 
From the findings of a joint October 2014 report of the OHCHR and UNAMI, ISIL had massacred up to 5000 Yazidi men during August 2014.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government estimated in December 2014 that the total number of killed or missing Yazidi men, women and children from Sinjar since August amounted to around 4000.
In 2019, the United States decided to pull troops out of Northeastern Syria.
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 Kurdish forces may feel betrayed. As Turkey incursion into Syria could weaken anti –IS forces and increase the chaos in to region.
On 12th October, 2019 Turkish military forces were in predominantly Kurdish northeastern Syria one day after America decided to pull the troops out of the region. 
What has been going in Syria?
 The Syrian Kurdish region, Rojava, is now run by a semi-autonomous Kurdish government, and its militias People’s Protection Units (YPG) are guarding the borders.
Turkey has been against Kurdish tribe, and it has been fighting against the Kurdish insurgeny led by the Kurdishtan workers Party. 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plan is to carve out a buffer between the border and the Rojava, which will be controlled by pro-Turkish Syrian rebels.
He also plans to resettle some Syrian refugees here. In its previous intervention, Turkey had already pushed the YPG out of Afrin, a border town.
It is now planning to repeat Afrin in a longer and wider stretch of the border region. The American presence may have held Mr. Erdoğan back, but with the White House saying that the U.S. troops “will not support or be involved” in the Turkish operation, the decks were cleared for Ankara.
 The YGP was the dominant player in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that destroyed the IS “caliphate”.
Turkey, which is fighting a violent Kurdish insurgency led by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in its Kurdish territories, sees an empowered YPG and a Kurdish autonomous government across the border a growing security threat to itself.
Why does Turkish Government dislike the Turks?
Kurdish people have demanded a separation from Turkey to create a separate Kurdistan with greater autonomy and political and cultural rights.
A Kurdish group was founded in 1978 by a Kurdish student named Abdullah Ocalan.
The initial reason given by the PKK for this was the oppression of Kurds in Tu By then, the use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned in Kurdish-inhabited areas.
 In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until 1991.
 The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government.
Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.
Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.
 The PKK was formed as part of a growing discontent over the suppression of Turkey's ethnic Kurds, in an effort to establish linguistic, cultural, and political rights for Turkey's ethnic Kurdish minority.
However, the full-scale insurgency did not begin until 15 August 1984, when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 have died, a vast majority of whom were Kurdish civilians killed by the Turkish Armed Forces.

The PKK's presence in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, from which it has also launched attacks, has resulted in the Turkish military carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region.

Why did the US decide to withdraw?
Mr, Trump  made the election campaign promise that he would reduce military engagement of America in West Asia. This military intrusion costs millions for United States, and the United States can not get stuck in Syria always.
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However, all of sudden disengagement will lead to further chaos among communities. Kurdish forces played an important role, when the world needed to fight against the ISIS. The Kurdish town Kobane was liberated by YPG in 2015. 

 There is a reason for Kurdish government in the Syria as these were Kurds who captured the major cities in region, which includes Raqqah,, that was the capital of Islamic State, and with the support of United States.
Has United States betrayed the Kurd?
It is difficult to say straight yes or no about it, but certainly, withdrawing the U.S forces without an collaborative plan can be a form of  ‘betrayal’ for Kurdish Forces.
What is the solution?
To be sure, the U.S. withdrawing troops itself is not the problem. Mr. Trump had made the campaign promise to wind down America’s military engagements in West Asia.
This is understood that the U.S. cannot get stuck in the Syrian conflict forever. The problem is the way in which it is abruptly disengaging itself and the potential consequences.
A Kurdistan government in northeast Syria because the Kurds have captured all the major cities in the region, including Raqqah, the de facto capital of the IS, with U.S. support.
However, post destruction of the IS “caliphate”, the U.S. seems to be abandoning the Kurd. 
There can be a well planned and orderly exit from Syria with security guarantees from Turkey.
The remaining IS fighters have retreated to the Iraqi and Syrian deserts waiting for an opportunity to strike back.
The Turkish incursion into Syria will not just set back the advances the Kurds have made in Rojava, but also weaken the most potent anti-jihadist force on the ground, besides throwing the whole region into chaos. It is a recipe for tragedy.



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