This year is a 10th year anniversary of the Arab Spring and also that of Syrian Civil War tragically. Syrian Constitutional Committee held several meetings for new Syrian constitution last year amid COVID-19. However political process of resolution of the war never progressed. In order to realize political settlement of Syrian War, it needs to gather all factions, especially which control part of Syrian territory. SDF which takes one-third of Syria has been excluded from meetings due to Turkish strong objection despite Russia having claimed to invite SDF. Turkey fears Kurdish de facto autonomous administration may be legitimated.
One of factors that impede political settlement of the war is illegale Turkish occupation of Northern Syria. Turkish Army (TSK Turkish acronym) started a cross-border operation named as 'Euphrates Shield' for the first time in July,2016. Turkish President Erdogan claimed that TSK entered into Syrin soil for cleaning ISIS jihadists from Turkish border. IT was clear that Erdogan ordered TSK to invade the area in order to stop Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)'s progress and expected connection of Kurdish-held eastern and western parts of Euphrates river. Then SDF crossed the Euphrates river to chase ISIS and liberate ISIS-strong held Manbij. In January, 2018 TSK launched Operation Olive Branch openly against SDF to invade Afrin located in the far northwest of Syria. Afrin was almost enclaved by Turkey so vulnerable to protect. However eastern Euphrates area and Manbij were protected strongly not only by SDF but also the U.S army. Erdogan often threatened to invade eastern Euphrates soon and deploy large units around the border but couldn’t cross the border. So Erdogan used infamous lobbyists to make The U.S President Trump betray Kurds. Later he announced withdrawal of the U.S army from Syrian territory. TSK launched a long awaited cross border operation north eastern Syria. Kurds fell into worst crisis ever since autonomous administration was established but they soon invited Russian Army in the SDF-held area. TSK seized control of border towns like Serekaniye (Rasulayn) , Girespi (Talabyad) but couldn't invade deeply into northern Syria. Turkey has continued occupation of Syrian territory until today.
Turkey claims that TSK is deployed for Turkish national security and TSK will withdraw from Syria after the border is secured. Contrary to Turkish claim, Turkish-held northern Syria seems to be a puppet state of Turkey as Northern Cyprus. Every local administration under Turkish occupation uses Turkish flag on its icon and banner.
(Photo from The Azaz Local Council’s Facebook page)
Even though most rebels served the Turkish state since the insurgency, they never disclosed Turkish support openly as current except Turkmen groups. Turkey has begun direct military intervention little by little since SDF progressed dramatically against ISIS and Assad started push-back to rebels. As the patron changed his stance, the client rebels also came not to hide Turkish affiliation. Currently rebels are merged into colonial-bureaucracy like system of Turkey.
Turkification is ongoing in Turkish-held area. Kurdish Hewar Agency denounced that Turkey had imposed local residents which were mainly Kurds Turkish language education instead of Kurdish language education. Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agencyalso reported that Turkish language education had started in Serekaniye under Turkish occupation. Except for Turkmen minorities, most residents of Turkish-held areas don’t need to learn Turkish language. Actually Turkish language education is necessary for Turkey to merge seized Syrian territories into Turkish administration system. Turkey has been criticized for changing the demographic of Northern Syria. Due to Turkish invasion, more than 300,000 Kurds were displaced from Afrin. After the occupation of Afrin Turkey deported hundred thousands of Syrian refugees who lived in Turkey formerly to Afrin and its suburbs. Also Turkey invited a lot of opposition militant and his family that lived in Eastern Ghouta the suburb of Damascus and exiled from Assad forces.
Turkish invasion is easily interpreted as to be due to hostile policy on Kurds. The reason of Turkish military action is not only blockade of Kurdish forces. Economic aspects of military actions shouldn’t be ignored. As Turkish media reported, Turkish Lira (TL) is used widely in Turkish-held areas. As the Azaz local council under Turkish guidance urged residents to use TL in local market, Turkey has given instruction for encouraging circulation of TL to Turkish local administrations. TL hit a record low at 2016’s coup attempt and also has dropped to historical low since mid-2018 due to tension with the U.S related to pastor Brunson's detention. TL has already lost original value. Hence Turkey tries to expand TL circulated area with force. Even it seems to attempt the establishment of Lira-Bloc finally.
Turkey seeks to overthrow Assad regime by supporting Syrian rebels dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood close to Erdogan and his party at first. However Assad countered back as Syrian army retook Aleppo in late 2016. Much worse, Kurdish-led SDF, which Turkey saw as a Syrian branch of PKK the Kurdish rebels in Turkey, took large parts of Northern Syria that was border with Turkey from ISIS which was suspected to be supported by Turkish state. Turkey decided to take direct control of Syrian territories avoiding complete loss to Assad and Kurds. Syrian war is no longer civil war of Syria but has been a war between Syria and Turkey.
Roni Namo
He is an ethnic issue writer living in Tokyo. Since he encountered the Kurdish issue at university’s era, he has been covering and analyzing political movements of ethnic minorities, mainly Kurds. He has been better killed by the Kurds in Kurdish (Kurmanji) and is probably the only Japanese in Japan who can use Kurds. In July of this year, he completed the translation of a Japanese novel into Kurdish (unpublished). He is currently focusing on learning Arabic. He has also learned Persian and Turkish. He is training to become a multilingual journalist.
