Last week the Turkish military sent 20 jets into Northern Syria to bomb Kurdish positions in the enclave the Kurds have built for themselves in the aftermath of the Syrian civil war. The latest incident is one of a long-running escalation of aggression by the Turkish regime into the neighbouring country, one that has led to the deaths of thousands of Syrian Kurds.
The targets of the latest attack included the area around the Maxmur refugee camp, which is home to thousands of Kurds who have escaped brutal persecution in Turkey. It is now believed by many observers that Turkey is now in effect carrying out an ethnic cleansing operation against the Kurds in both Syria and Turkey.
The Kurdish people, who are without an official state, are spread across South-Eastern Turkey and Northern Iraq and Syria. They have fought a long bloody battle, primarily against Turkey, to establish their own independent state but have faced persecution.
Since the 1970s, the Kurds in Turkey have fought a guerrilla campaign against the Turkish state that has led to the deaths of over 30,000 people. As Iraq collapsed after the 2003 US invasion, the Kurds were able to create a semi-autonomous region in Iraq and, during the civil war in Syria, after defeating ISIS, the Kurds were similarly able to create a semi-autonomous region, known as Rojava, in Northern Syria.
The Rojava area has gained world-wide fame as a defender of Kurdish identity, left-wing ideals and women’s rights. When the US special forces withdrew from the Rojava region, after assisting the fight against ISIS, it left open the opportunity for a Turkish invasion. Since then, the Turks have been putting down the Rojava project and killing the very same heroes that defeated ISIS.
Despite being a NATO member, the killing of the Kurds by the Turkish military has been virtually unreported in Western media. Clearly, Turkey feels a real danger of having a Kurdish autonomous region on its southern border, and holds the belief that such a presence could act as a base for Kurdish independence supporters in Turkey.
What worries others is the possibility of a full blown ethnic genocide by Turkey. Many millions of Arab refugees are now situated in Turkey, many of whom are loyal to ErdoÄŸan and his Islamist ideology, and it is feared that ErdoÄŸan will now try and repopulate Kurdish regions with these loyal refugees. In effect destroying the Kurds and ethnically replacing them.
The Yazidi people, many of whom also live alongside Kurds, also fear that they will face a similar genocide.
The Yazidi Exile Council of Sinjar stated in relation to the recent bombings:
"In one night Turkey bombed the survivors of a genocide eight times. It is likely that a hospital was deliberately hit. How many of our people is Turkey allowed to kill before this finally ends? Will the US and EU Members stop Turkey killing us? What use did it have to end ISIS if Turkey is allowed to kill us anyway?"
Turkey is increasingly being regarded as a rogue pariah state, it now has more journalists locked up than in any other country in the world and the veneer of democracy is rapidly disappearing.
It is high-time the world woke up to the activities of the Turks and defend the bravery of the Kurds who fought ISIS and simply wish a homeland of their own.
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