Turkish attacks on Syrian Democratic Forces in the Shehba region, Syria

While Turkey can and should have a crucial role in fighting the ISIL, the attacks of Turkish army and its local allies - various fundamentalist groups - on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are providing the ISIL with fresh air, aggravating the already unstable political situation in Syria. 

The SDF have proved to be very effective in the fight against the ISIL in Syria, defeating it on many fronts, most notably in ‫Girê Spî‎‬ (Tell Abyad), Kobane, and Manbij. Perceiving these successes of the SDF as a national security threat, Turkey has been carrying out aggressive policies to undermine them. Sacrificing the peace process with the Kurds at home and initiating militarist policies against the Kurds in Syria, who constitute the backbone of the SDF, Turkey is foreclosing the possibilities of a peaceful future and political stability both at home and in Syria. 

Most recently, Turkish military authorities claimed to have killed about 200 SDF members in its last air strikes on October 19. Local sources and journalists in the field, however, report that four civilians and ten SDF combatants were killed in the Shehba region, bordering the canton of Afrin. Whatever the number of casualties, this incident once again shows that the Erdogan regime’s military intervention in Syria is primarily against the SDF and the Kurds and fighting the ISIL is a pretext. Let us emphasize that from the very outset the Erdogan regime’s irrational policies in Syria have deepened ethnic and sectarian polarization, making it extremely difficult to defeat the ISIL, and develop a political solution to stabilize the country.

We view Turkey’s recent attack on the SDF as unacceptable and vehemently protest it. We call upon the international community to do the same and take immediate action to stop Erdogan’s irrational anti-Kurdish and anti-SDF policies in Syria. Rather than fighting them, Turkey should view the SDF and the Kurds as partners and focus its energy on a genuine fight against the ISIL.

October 20, 2016