The Globe and Mail - 24.10.2019

A10 O THEGLOBEANDMAIL | THURSDAY,OCTOBER24,

Mr. al-Assad’s forces have also re-
turned to Eastern Syria after
withdrawing early in the coun-
try’s eight-year-old civil war, in-
vited back earlier this month by
the YPG in hopes of discouraging
a deeper Turkish invasion. The
combination of the Turkish of-
fensive and the return of the re-
gime’s forces – including its
feared secret police – have
brought a crashing end to the
brief period of U.S.-shielded au-
tonomy for Syria’s Kurds, who
had few rights under Mr. al-As-
sad’s rule.
Many here talk of an Amer-
ican betrayal that set the chaotic
events in motion.
YPG fighters had
formed the back-
bone of the Syrian
Democratic Forces
(SDF), a militia that
allied with the U.S.,
and acted as its pri-
mary ground force,
in the campaign to
defeat the Islamic
State earlier this
year. Some 11,
Kurdish fighters
died in the street-
by-street battles to
retake Raqqa and
other cities that
had fallen under
control of the ex-
tremist group.
That alliance ap-
peared to have been forgotten
during an Oct. 6 phone call be-
tween Mr. Erdogan and Mr.
Trump, after which the U.S. Pres-
ident ordered the withdrawal of
the 1,000 special-forces troops
stationed in Syria, and signalled

his support for the Turkish inva-

sion.

“Safe Zone created!” Mr.

Trump wrote Wednesday on his

Twitter account, referring to the

30-kilometre-deep area on the

Syrian side of the Turkish border

that Mr. Putin and Mr. Erdogan

agreed should be kept free of

Turkish fighters. “Ceasefire has

held and combat missions have

ended. Kurds are safe and have

worked very nicely with us.”

But while Mr. Erdogan’s mil-

itary has continued to pause its

offensive to see if the YPG fight-

ers withdraw according to the

Sochi formula, Syria’s Kurds

clearly feel anything but safe.

A majority of the refugees in-

terviewed by The

Globe and Mail said

they were fleeing

because they feel

the Turkish assault

could resume at

any moment. A sig-

nificant minority,

however, were

young men who

said they feared be-

ing conscripted in-

to Mr. al-Assad’s ar-

my if the regime

took back control.

“IfIgobackto

Syria, the police

will catch me and I

will have to do mil-

itary service,” said

Hamid Malla, a 19-

year-old who was

completing his final year of high

school before Mr. Trump green-

lighted the Turkish assault in the

call with Mr. Erdogan. He fled

with only a backpack stuffed

with a sweater, some plastic bot-

tles of water and a hand-drawn

portrait of his girlfriend, Malva,

who had remained behind in Sy-

ria with her family.

Turkey and Russia began on

Wednesday to implement the

deal struck in Sochi, with Rus-

sian and Syrian troops arriving

to begin patrolling the border

zone.

Under the terms of the deal,

Russian and Syrian forces have

five days to persuade the YPG to

leave the area, after which the

Sochi pact says the zone would

be jointly patrolled by Russian

and Turkish forces. If the YPG re-

fuses to withdraw, the Turkish of-

fensive will resume.

Russia said Wednesday that

the Americans had turned their

backs on the Kurds. “The United

States has been the Kurds’ clos-

est ally in recent years. [But] in

the end, it abandoned the Kurds

and, in essence, betrayed them,”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Pes-

kov told reporters in Moscow. He

added that if the Kurdish fighters

didn’t leave on time, they would

be “steamrolled” by the Turkish

military.

Kurdish analysts say the deal

amounts to ethnic cleansing of

the 30-kilometre zone, since

Kurds are being forced to leave

an area that the Sochi agreement

says will later be populated with

some of the 3.7 million Syrian

refugees – most of whom are

Arabs – currently living in Tur-

key.

“Even if Erdogan does not

FOLIO

Syria: Somerefugeesfearbeingenlistedinto

armyifal-Assad’sregimetakesbackcontrol

SyrianKurdsfleeingtheTurkishincursionlineupforamealattheBardarashrefugeecamp,whichnowhasa

populationofmorethan8,000,innorthernIraq.PHOTOS BY ANDREA DICENZO/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Even if Erdogan does

not have the

intention to pursue

demographic

change, Kurds will

leave this area

because they will

not feel safe. When

you fear the security

forces, you leave.

MERABAKR

POLITICAL ANALYST IN THE

KURDISH AUTONOMOUS

REGION OF IRAQ

FROMA