Thread by @bobfrombrockley

A few thoughts on Turkey's assault on Syrian Kurdistan:

1/ First the obvious but essential points: that the unjustified invasion is developing into a terrible humanitarian disaster, that it should stop immediately, and that Trump should never have green-lighted it.

2/ The Turkish justification of a place for Syrian refugees to "return" is obscene: only a tiny number came from the areas they are invading so this is no kind of "return" but displacing them yet again in order to demographically restructure Kurdistan.

3/ The invasion needs to be seen in the context of Turkey's internal politics. Erdoğan's gov, previously relatively hospitable to refugees, is pivoting to appease
a mood mounting anti-Syrian xenophobia that has electorally benefited opposition parties.

4/ Western media framing is flawed, particularly the way the assault's victims are described as "the Kurds". The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are indeed Kurdish-led but are ≈30% non-Kurdish (e.g. Arab units like Liwa Ahrar al-Raqqa, multi-ethnic units like Jaysh al-Thuwar).

5/ Similarly there are Kurdish fighters in the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (up to 1000 according to some reports, e.g. in the Hamza Division)
al-monitor.com/pulse/original…
en.suriyegundemi.com/2018/12/29/fac…

6/ And there are Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan who support parties affiliated to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraqi Kurdistan rather than to Rojava (the Syrian Kurdish state, governed by the PYD party), and some 300,000 Kurds had by 2017 left Rojava for the KRG.

7/ So, there is no homogeneous "the Kurds".

Now, a couple of comments on Western responses to the invasion:

8/ The solidarity from the left for Rojava is of course justified, including calls for a No Fly Zone to protect from superior Turkish air power. But it is grating to see such calls from people who denounce similar calls to protect non-Kurdish Syrian civilians, e.g. in Idlib.

9/ While this assault gets media attention, Syrian regime air war on Idlib continues unnoticed. Yesterday, rebel towns Kafranbel and Maaret Harma. Since I started this thread, Kafrouma was shelled, killing a child and other civilians.

10/ The SDF played a massive, heroic role in fighting ISIS, with US aerial support - but we shouldn't romanticise them. Their record includes coerced recruitment, including of children reliefweb.int/report/syrian-…

11/ In this current conflict with Turkey, the SDF are shelling Kurdish majority towns in Turkey, Nusaybin and Suruc, and the Arab town Akcakale, killing civilians. (Obviously, civilian casualties from Turkish shelling are likely to be greater, but so far not a lot.)

12/ In some of the territory the SDF hold or have held, there are credible reports of displacement (ethnic cleansing) of Arab residents. thenation.com/article/have-t… amnesty.org/en/latest/news… thenation.com/article/war-cr…

13/ Rojava, the autonomous state in Syrian Kurdistan, has made major social gains, e.g. in terms of gender equality - but there is also repression against political dissidents by the ruling PYD (part of the ex-Maoist PKK), with arbitrary arrests of opposition activists.

14/ Again, it's grating that most of those who uncritically laud Rojava's democratic project do not also value the anarchist-inspired decentralised civil democracy in rebel zones of Syria (see libcom.org/library/experi… socialistproject.org/issues/august-… leilashami.wordpress.com/2016/11/07/the… )

15/ However, it is depressing to see some of my Syrian comrades use Erdoğan's de-humanising "terrorist" rhetoric about the SDF/PYD (and the civilians they rule). That kind of War on Terror language has been used enough to justify genocide in the region; it is literally lethal.

16/ OK, that's probably it for now.

For sensible geopolitical analysis of this clusterfuck read @michaeldweiss: thedailybeast.com/trump-just-ope…

For up to date detailed reportage from Syria go here: twitter.com/bobfrombrockle…