Why Trump was a catastrophe for the Kurds

Between August 2016 and March 2017, Turkey actually conquered a large area west of the Euphrates River. The following January, Turkey attacked the Kurdish city of Afrin inside the Syrian border. The United States could have stopped the Turks but did nothing, while other Western countries reacted passively to the invasion. It was an attack on a peaceful area that had not been affected by the civil war and where tens of thousands of people from ethnic groups lived together in peace. In this city and before the eyes of the world, Turkey committed what could only be seen as ethnic cleansing, with hundreds of people killed and 300,000 forced to flee the area. Turkey then settled Arabs and Turkmens in the area. Donald Trump remained silent, while Erdogan’s proxy militias and Islamists committed their crimes in Afrin.

Why Trump was a catastrophe for the Kurds

The Kurds fought successfully against Islamic State (ISIS) in both Iraq and Syria. In Syria, it was the Syrien Democratic Forces (SFD)’s soldiers who fought in the villages and cities and eventually were able to defeat ISIS’s last stronghold in Baghouz in eastern Syria (on March 23, 2019). Of course, the defeat of ISIS was only possible with the air support from the US and other allies. The fight saw the United States suffering minimal losses against ISIS, while the SDF lost thousands of fighters. The Kurds were the ally the West could trust. This happened in the conservative Middle East, where Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar spent billions of dollars funding their proxies in fights over the conflicting interests of these countries.

When the expired Kurdish president Musud Barzani out of self-interest pushed the controversial referendum through in September 2017, the Iraqi army, accompanied by Shia and Iranian militias, attacked the Kurds in Kirkuk and other disputed areas of the country. The United States looked on passively. As a power broker in Iraq, it could have played a more positive role, and could have intervened before it developed into what became a humiliating defeat for the Kurds. The Kurds appeared to be of no concern to President Trump. Worth mentioning the growing influence of Iran and General Soleimani in Iraq was possible because the United States had been passive with the development.

Regarding Rojava, the US presence had been crucial in protecting the Kurds and other minorities in northeastern Syria, despite the Turkish attacks that began in August 2016 west of the Euphrates River. The Kurds’ secular nature, their self-created regional government and the strength they have displayed have undoubtedly alarmed Turkey. It appears that Turkey was looking for an excuse to attack the Kurds on a larger scale, as Turkey would use the excuse of national security to stop any further Kurdish autonomy.

Between August 2016 and March 2017, Turkey actually conquered a large area west of the Euphrates River. The following January, Turkey attacked the Kurdish city of Afrin inside the Syrian border. The United States could have stopped the Turks but did nothing, while other Western countries reacted passively to the invasion. It was an attack on a peaceful area that had not been affected by the civil war and where tens of thousands of people from ethnic groups lived together in peace. In this city and before the eyes of the world, Turkey committed what could only be seen as ethnic cleansing, with hundreds of people killed and 300,000 forced to flee the area. Turkey then settled Arabs and Turkmens in the area. Donald Trump remained silent, while Erdogan’s proxy militias and Islamists committed their crimes in Afrin.

The friendship and private trade between Erdogan and Trump’s families was by no means a gift to the Kurds. On the contrary, Erdogan seemed to make the right call by using it, and he knew that President Trump cared neither for the Kurds nor human rights. It was after a phone call with Erdogan that Donald Trump suddenly decided to pull the United States out of Syria. Warnings from the Secretary of Defence James Mattis, the national security adviser John Bolton and the special presidential envoy Brett McGurk did nothing to stop him. Trump believed that ISIS had been defeated and the Kurds had received their payment for the work completed, and they were no longer a concern for the United States. Trump thought Turkey would fight the remaining ISIS combatants and keep order in the area. This was the second time that Turkey was given an opportunity to damage Kurdish autonomy. Turkey and its proxy militias invaded large areas along the border, leaving Turkey to now control 8,835 square-kilometers in northern Syria, and the Kurds practically purged from the occupied territories.

Erdogan thus got a significant part of what he wanted, which was creating a buffer zone along the Syrian border inside Syria and implementing it in vital border areas. He wanted to weaken Kurdish autonomy and purge Kurdish territory in Syria. He did this by removing the Kurdish authority and nearly purging Kurds from the occupied areas.

We do not know what Trump got in return, but it was Trump who gave Turkey the green light for the invasion. Under intense pressure, Trump made a fragile deal with Turkey and the killings stopped. Trump seems to have thought the Kurds could finally move from their homeland to the new occupied Arab territories that were taken by the Kurds and American forces! It all seemed to be a game for him.

Trump’s distrust of the Kurds was already evident during his election campaign in 2016, where he said “Saddam throws a little gas, everyone goes crazy.” In that statement, he both disrespects the Kurds and seems to condone Saddam Hussein’s crimes. Actually Halabja’s chemical attack resulted in thousands of deaths and injures. That was the largest chemical weapons attack against a civilian population in a city in history. The Iraqi High Criminal Court (IHCC) recognized the crime as the crime of Genocide. Did this have anything to do with Trump´s private connection with Turkish leaders or was it just the erratic Trump so beloved by dictators—it’s hard to know.

Trump’s security adviser at the time, John Bolton, writes in his book, “The Room Where It Happened,” that Trump did not like the Kurds and he said it openly. He said “I do not want to stay at all. I do not like the Kurds. They ran from the Iraqis, they ran from the Turks, the only time they do not run is when we’re bombing all around them with F-18s.” In Afrin, the Kurds fought with light weapons against Turkey, NATO’s second largest army, equipped with advanced air and land weapons. It seems that every military expert knew that the battle was unequal and it was impossible for the Kurds to stand up without help. It is also recognized that a combat zone operation requires air support. Would the United States, which has perhaps the strongest force in the world, put its soldiers somewhere without air support!? In Kirkuk, there were, again, Iraqi soldiers and militia, with the support of Iran, attacking the Kurds, and it was wise not to take on an already losing battle. Where were the Americans when they saw Iranian involvement in the battle? The US did nothing and the result was thousands fleeing and hundreds killed.

Trump’s apology for the Turkish attack was like a child’s apology when he said “They (Kurds) did not help us in the Second World War. They did not help us with Normandy, for example.”  The Kurds did not even have a state at the time. But the Kurds, in their capacity as individuals, did actively help in the war on several fronts. My father was one of them, fighting as a British soldier in Battalion 7, Company 44 in Cyprus during WWII. This was just one of the many nonsensical statements he made throughout his four years as president

We must not forget that Trump—in addition to what we have written—hated Obama’s political legacy. He promised his voters he would withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and elsewhere. It was Obama’s strategy to deploy troops in Syria. Trump wanted to get rid of them, just like he did with Obamacare. Trump actually had several reasons to sell out the Kurds.

Instead of constructive solutions in Syria and Iraq, President Trump turned his back on the Kurds in both Syria and Iraq. For the Kurds, the result was a disaster: they lost much of their territory, several hundreds were killed, hundreds of thousands fled their homes, and Turkey settled thousands of Arabs and Turkmens in the Kurdish territory in Syria. It is uncertain whether the Kurds will ever be allowed to return to their homes.

By Shakhawan Shorsh
26 January 26, 2021