On October 6th, President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States troops from Syria on Twitter. Trump made it one of his campaign promises to remove all U.S. troops from Syria. As a result of the removal of U.S. troops, Turkey has launched military offensives with air strikes and ground offensives into Syria, causing thousands of Syrians to flee. The decision to remove the remaining troops out of Syria granted the Turkish government an opening to enter into the Syrian territory occupied by the Syrain Kurds, just 3 days after the removal of U.S. troops. The Syrian Democratic Forces (Kurdish led group) had been a longtime ally of the U.S., helping to fight ISIS in Syria, but after the U.S. turned their back on the Syrian Kurds, they aligned themselves with the government in Damascus, an enemy of the United States. The Syrian Kurds are saying the U.S. is “stabbing them in the back”, and as a result are now tied with many enemies of the United States after their new alliance.
Kurdish people have faced violence and discrimination against them for many years as they are an ethnic minority in Syria, Turkey, Armenia, Iraq, and Iran. Turkey holds the largest Kurdish population with roughly 15 million Turkish Kurds in comparison to Syria’s 1 to 2 million Syrian Kurds. They are the world’s largest stateless nation with an estimated 20-40 million Kurdish population over the 5 states they reside in. Syrian Kurds border the Turkish Kurds which is a main reason for the Turkish government’s concern and offensive into Syria.
If the Syrian Kurds were to successfully become independent, that would pose high threats to the surrounding countries with Kurdish populations such as Turkey with the highest population. A domino effect could occur if the Syrian Kurds were to gain independence as the other Kurdish populations in the surrounding 4 other states would follow and join the Syrian Kurds then the formation of Kurdistan is more possible, but not likely. Turkey has revealed their fear of a Kurdish independence movement in Turkey by pushing the UN to create a safe zone on the part of Syria that borders Turkey. The U.S. and Turkey had worked together to patrol the area bordering Turkey in September in order to push the Syrian Kurds away from their Turkish Kurd counterpart. Turkey is also worried about the Syrian Kurds due to their connection to the PKK, a terrorist group that has killed 40,000 Turkish people in a war between the PKK and Turkey. The PKK backs the nationalist movement of the Kurds and their push for the formation of Kurdistan, a main fear of Turkey.
Erdogan hasn’t listened to Trump’s warning to “[not] be a fool!” in regards to the invasion of Syria. The Turkish government does not want the Syrian Kurds on their border to gain any more momentum or progression towards independence, and as a result their offensive into Syria will continue.