https://themilitant.com/2018/12/22/turkish-rulers-threaten-to-attack-kurds-seeking-autonomy-in-syria-2/
Turkish rulers threaten to attack Kurds seeking autonomy in Syria
By Terry Evans
Vol. 83/No. 1
January 7, 2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spent the last few weeks
repeatedly threatening to unleash a military assault on Kurdish People’s
Protection Units (YPG) that control a swathe of eastern Syria. These
forces have won a measure of autonomous rule over much of the Kurdish
cantons in Syria, an advance for the Kurds who suffer national
oppression in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. For this reason they’ve
gained the undying enmity of Turkey’s capitalist rulers who call them
terrorists.
President Donald Trump urged Erdogan not to carry through on his
threats, while the Turkish president insists Washington abandon its
support for the YPG.
On Dec. 19 Trump announced the war against Islamic State had been won in
Syria and he was beginning the withdrawal of U.S. troops there. Two days
later Erdogan said Ankara would postpone any offensive against Kurdish
forces in northern Syria for at least a month to give the U.S. time to
withdraw.
Even with this drawdown, the U.S. rulers have the most formidable
military force in the Middle East, deployed to protect their imperialist
interests.
Though the complete figures are secret, the Pentagon admits to some
50,000 troops there, along with a powerful armada of fighter jets,
bombers, artillery and missiles, and the Fifth Fleet.
Unwilling to deploy U.S. troops on the ground to defeat Islamic State,
the U.S. rulers relied on the YPG to lead the effort to drive the
reactionary sect out of Syria, backed by Washington’s air power. As a
result, the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) now controls 25
percent of the country east of the Euphrates River, both in Kurdish
areas near the Turkish border and majority Arab areas that were former
IS strongholds like Raqqa. Some of these areas are home to most of the
oil in Syria.
Washington wants to continue pushing back against Tehran’s expanding
military reach in the region. The rulers in Iran provided decisive
forces, along with Moscow’s air power, to save the collapsing rule of
Bashar al-Assad in Syria, following a popular uprising aimed at
overturning his tyranny. Assad threatens he will bring the area east of
the Euphrates back under Syrian government control.
To bolster Erdogan’s threats, the Turkish army has mobilized thousands
of troops and tanks close to the country’s border with Syria. They have
rallied 15,000 fighters from Syrian opposition groups that Ankara arms
to take part in an assault.
Washington tried to take steps to allay Ankara’s fear of YPG
interference in Turkey. It invited Turkish forces to join joint patrols
in Manbij to assure no attacks on Turkey were being organized.
Similarly, Washington established 12 “observation posts” along the
border, saying it would guarantee that no incursions into Turkey took
place. Ankara says this is aimed at keeping an eye on Turkish troops.
Despite the U.S. rulers’ inability to resolve the conflicts across the
Mideast, they are determined to protect their interests in the region.
Struggle for Kurdish sovereignty
The U.S. rulers have betrayed the Kurdish national struggle over and
over for decades, but find it necessary to provide Kurdish forces here
and in Iraq with some assistance for now in order to advance
Washington’s interests.
Earlier this year the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Turkey,
accelerating the decline of the country’s currency, the lira. In
addition to bearing the brunt of Ankara’s military intervention in Syria
and its crackdown on political rights at home, working people in Turkey
face food prices that have risen 20 percent this year.
As the capitalist rulers in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey seek to advance
their conflicting interests, they remain determined to prevent the 30
million Kurds living within their borders from exercising national
rights. For decades they’ve quelled Kurdish demands for sovereignty,
banned their language, restricted land ownership and waged murderous
assaults on Kurds who resist, often with Washington’s complicity. But
they have been unable to crush Kurdish national aspirations.
As the U.S.-dominated imperialist order in the Mideast has come apart in
the wake of wars the U.S. rulers have been unable to win, Kurdish
parties have taken advantage of the weakening of regimes in Iraq and
Syria to carve out a degree of self-rule. But the rulers in the region
remain determined to constrain these moves, as was demonstrated when the
Iraqi government — with the backing of Tehran and Ankara — organized to
use force to quash the vote for independence in the Kurdish region of
Iraq in September 2017, without Washington lifting a finger.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •‘Yellow vest’ protests force gov’t concessions
•New Year’s greetings to our readers behind bars!
•Join SWP in taking books, ‘Militant’ to workers doors
•‘We are human beings, not robots!’ Amazon workers protest conditions
•Turkish rulers threaten to attack Kurds seeking autonomy in Syria
•Rail bosses push crew cuts, longer trains, risk lives in drive for profit
Feature Articles •‘What does Cuba teach? That revolution is possible’
Also In This Issue •Hungary protests oppose law letting bosses force
overtime
•Workers donate ‘blood money’ bribes to build SWP
•Celebrate Nan Bailey’s five decades building SWP
•UK out of EU is best terrain for workers’ struggles there
•Join fight against prison censorship of ‘Militant’!
On the Picket Line •Mental health clinicians strike across California
•United flight attendants protest crew size cuts, grueling schedules
•Oakland teachers rally for smaller class sizes, higher wages
•Walmart worker hits bosses’ abuses over intercom
Books of the Month •Workers take political power or face ‘Iron Heel’ of
capitalist rule
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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