Kurds strike deal with Damascus for gov’t force entry of north Syria towns

By Mohammed Rwanduzy, RUDAW

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Syria’s army have begun advancing towards the Kurdish-controlled northern towns of Kobani and Manbij on Sunday, the Kurdish-led administration of northeast Syria said, after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)and Damascus negotiated a deal to prevent further Turkish advances in the area.

With Operation Peace Spring, Turkey aims to clear its border with Syria, to settle the Kurdish-majority area with up to three million, mostly Arab refugees in what opponents call demographic re-engineering.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) announced the deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in a Sunday evening statement.

“This deployment occurred through coordination and agreement with the Self-Administration Authority for Northern and Eastern Syria and the Syrian Democratic Forces,” the statement said.

“To counter and prevent this [Turkish] attack, an agreement with the Syrian government, which is responsible for protecting the borders of the country and preserving Syrian sovereignty, has been reached for the Syrian army to enter and be deployed along the Syrian-Turkish border,” said the NES.

The Syrian Army deployment is to “support the Syrian Democratic Forces to counter this aggression and liberate the territory which the Turkish army and its hired mercenaries entered”, argued the Kurdish authority.

The deal also aims to “liberate” parts of Syria under Turkish-backed proxy control, including Afrin, taken from Kurdish forces in early 2018 during Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch.

The Syrian Army is now advancing towards Kobani, Ismat Sheikh Hassan, head of Kobani’s Defense Authority told media.

“Tonight, the Syrian army will return to Kobani. Per the agreement with Russia, tonight the Syrian Army will return to Kobani,” Hassan said.

Syrian state media SANA also confirmed the deal in a tweet on Sunday evening. “Units of the Syrian Arab Army are moving towards the north to counter the Turkish aggression,” said a SANA reporter.

SDF-affiliated media reported Sunday evening that the Syrian government’s Syrian Arab Army (SAA) troops would soon be entering Kobani and Manbij, per a deal between the SDF and the Syrian regime, to stave off Turkish incursion into those areas.

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also reported on Sunday evening that it had “confirmed information” that Russia and the SDF reached an agreement in which the Syrian regime troops would enter both Kobani and Manbij.

A number of Kurdish leaders in northern Syria have said US withdrawal from Kurdish-majority areas has forced them to turn to the Syrian government for help countering Turkish operations.

Fears of continued Turkish advance had prompted Omer Ousi, a Kurdish MP in the Syrian parliament, to urge both Damascus and the SDF to reach a deal and put an end to the Turkish operation.

In a statement sent to Rudaw detailing Ousi’s remarks during a Syrian Parliament session on Sunday, he purportedly condemned the Turkish operation and urged the Syrian government and the SDF to “undertake their responsibility.”

“This Turkish colonial occupation doesn’t just target SDF forces and the Kurdish minority, but rather the entire demographics of Syria, the geography of Syria, and all the components of the Syrian people,” the statement quoted Ousi as saying.

Turkish President Recep Teyyip Erdogan wants to “occupy” the areas between Euphrates and Tigris River with a depth of 30-40 kilometers to “change the demography and exercise ethnic cleansing against Kurds and all the components of Syria”, Ousi argued.

Since Operation Peace Spring’s initiation, Damascus has said it would take steps to counter the Turkish incursion. However, they have also denounced “Kurdish organizations” for bringing the Turkish incursion upon themselves by betraying Syria and leaning on US assistance.

Last Sunday, US President Donald Trump appeared to greenlight a Turkish operation in the area by announcing US troop withdrawal from outposts along the Syria-Turkey border.

US withdrawal has been met with outrage by Kurdish leadership.

In exchanges with the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, SDF’s commander-in-chief lamented US abandonment of the Kurds.

“You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered,” the SDF’s General Mazloum Kobani Abdi reportedly told William Roebuck.

Rudaw understands Abdi has tried to persuade the US to reverse its decision to withdraw, but to no avail.

“I need to know if you are capable of protecting my people, of stopping these bombs falling on us or not,” Abdi told Roebuck.

Alternative foreign assistance would otherwise be sought, the SDF general said.

“I need to know, because if you’re not, I need to make a deal with Russia and the regime now and invite their planes to protect this region,” the SDF General added.

Casualties are continuing to mount as Turkey’s operation enters its fifth day. According to the SOHR, 64 civilians have so far been killed.

Updated at 10:41 pm

October 14, 2019 | 2 Comments »

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  2. This is the take on the Turkish invasion by Ted’s friend Guy Bechor (one of the attendees of the Jordan Option conference, if I recall correctly). Written up by the Jewish Press.

    sraeli political commentator and Middle East expert Guy Bechor is not impressed by the plight of the Kurds, whom he says have been collaborating with the Syrian regime for several years now. Moreover, Bechor sees the US move, followed by the Turkish incursion as serving Israeli security interests.
    Describing the situation in terms of the eternal Sunni-Shiite conflict which has been splitting the Islamic world for 1,300 years, give or take a decade, Bechor suggested on Saturday that this Turkish (Sunni) invasion, with thousands—soon to be tens of thousands—of well trained and well armed Sunni militias, is rattling President Bashar al-Assad’s army, as well as, most important, the Iranian satellite Shiite militias (soon to include Hezbollah) which have received orders to abandon the southern front with Israel and move up north and build defenses against the invasion.

    In other words, Trump’s move, leading to Erdo?an’s move, has revived the Syrian civil war and the vortex that pulls in Arab violence from across the region. And that, as far as Israel is concerned, is a very good thing.

    The change created by President Trump pulling out a few dozen US soldiers has been so massive, that Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, in an interview with Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia, and RT, said that “those who are illegally present in […] Syria should leave the region,” which includes all the countries involved. Indeed, Putin volunteered that Moscow would also pull out of Syria if the Syrian government decides that Russian troops must leave.

    The oozing generosity of the man…

    President Trump, for his part, defies the assertion that his move had been done on the fly, insisting the pullout was fulfilling his campaign promise:

    “I was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars, where our great Military functions as a policing operation to the benefit of people who don’t even like the USA,” he tweeted on October 7. “The two most unhappy countries at this move are Russia & China, because they love seeing us bogged down, watching over a quagmire, & spending big dollars to do so. When I took over, our Military was totally depleted. Now it is stronger than ever before. The endless and ridiculous wars are ENDING! We will be focused on the big picture, knowing we can always go back & BLAST!”

    On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted, in response to the bipartisan attacks on his decision to leave northern Syria: “The same people that got us into the Middle East Quicksand, 8 Trillion Dollars and many thousands of lives (and millions of lives when you count the other side), are now fighting to keep us there. Don’t listen to people that haven’t got a clue. They have proven to be inept!”

    He meant, most precisely, the old GOP, as well as then Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and most Senate Democrats, who in 2003 supported President GW Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and get rid of a man who once was the US’ most loyal ally, Saddam Hussein. Using borrowed money, the Bush administration destroyed the ruling Sunni minority, turning Iraq into a Shiite close ally of Iran, even as the Sunnis reorganized as ISIS, throwing fear in the hearts of every Western and Muslim leader for a decade.

    Bechor argues that by pulling out of northern Syria – but keeping his 2,000 or so US troops in eastern Syria, protecting the Kurds there, and, more important, the gas fields west of the Euphrates – Trump is actually restoring the religious balance in the region and weakening Iran’s hold on the areas alongside Israel’s border.

    Obviously, Bechor has been proved wrong about those 2,000 or so U.S. troops in Syria, since Trump and the Pentagon have announced their withdrawal. The rest of his analysis perhaps deserves consideration. When Israel’s enemies fight with each other, their ability to attack Israel may be compromised.

    It looks like Putin is opposing Turkey’s move, even though he won’t criticise Turkey in so many words. Clearly, though, he is backing Assad, who is opposing Turkey’s invasion.