Turkish Problem

What started as a plan for Turkey to establish “safe-zone” on the Turkey-Syrian border has escalated into a bombing war on Syrian Kurds living on the border. This buffer zone was being negotiated but talks stalled. Turkey is now attempting to establish the “safe zone” by force, bombing Syrian Kurdish cities on the border.

SDF Syrian Kurds had been guarding the captured 11,000 ISIS fighters who came from Europe. Trump attempted to send them back to Europe, but Europe declined. 

The ISIS fighters’ families were detained in camps with other refugees.  Turkish airstrikes prompted 13,000 refugees to flee their camp. So far, 700 ISIS family members have escaped their camp due to Turkish airstrikes. Kurds allowed them to escape as they moved to repel the Turkish forces.

Now Russian-backed Syrian Government Troops are moving north to Kurdish occupied areas, hopefully to secure ISIS POW camps.

The effort to stop the Turkish air attacks is unknown, but it would require establishing a no-fly zone. This could only be done by the US or other allied forces.

The US is also concerned that Iran could attempt to seize Syrian oil fields. The US is talking sanctions against Turkey in response to their airstrikes.

Turkey is a NATO member country and that poses a problem. Turkey has cleverly maintained this NATO membership while courting relations with its non-NATO neighbors.

Turkish President Erdogan insists that the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who live in Northern Syria are a “Terrorist Group”, working with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in Turkey to overthrow his government. The PKK has launched attacks in Turkey since 1984.

The US regarded the SDF as allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria. The US appreciated the Kurds in Kurdistan Iraq during the Iraq wars, but didn’t support their desire to break with Iraq.

Trump is correctly removing US troops from the Middle East to let them resolve their own political battles. 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader