THURSDAY,OCTOBER24,2019| THEGLOBEANDMAILO A1 1
have the intention to pursue de-
mographic change, Kurds will
leave this area because they will
not feel safe. When you fear the
security forces, you leave,” said
Mera Bakr, a political analyst in
the Kurdish autonomous region
of Iraq.
Mr. Bakr said the Kurds saw
no friends among Mr. Putin, Mr.
Erdogan and Mr. al-Assad, which
is why General Mazloum Abdi,
the commander-in-chief of the
SDF, continued even on Wednes-
day to praise Mr. Trump on Twit-
ter for his “great efforts” in bring-
ing about a recent ceasefire –
hoping to remind the U.S. of its
previous alliance with the group.
But it was unclear Wednesday
whether and when the YPG
would start to withdraw. “The
question is what other option do
they have? If they don’t with-
draw, they’re fighting Russia,
they’re fighting Assad, they’re
fighting Turkey,” Mr. Bakr said.
“If they fight, they will lose.”Many of the refugees also
seemed to accept that their
hopes for a U.S.-protected safe
zone in Syria – akin to the one
that Iraq’s Kurds have enjoyed
since the 2003 ouster of Saddam
Hussein – have now been
dashed.
“We don’t care who takes over
now,” said Zainab Jalal Ali, a 25-
year-old who fled to Bardarash a
week ago with two of her friends.
“As long as it’s safe and there’s
no war.”Mr. Trump framed the U.S. retreat as the fulfillment of his
campaign-trail promise to adopt a non-interventionist pol-
icy as part of his nationalistic America First agenda.
But it drew anger from both the country’s foreign-policy
establishment and congressional Republicans, who accused
Mr. Trump of betraying a key ally in the fight against the
Islamic State by leaving the Kurds to the whims of Turkish,
Russian and Syrian autocrats. Mr. Trump needs his caucus
onside as he faces impeachment proceedings.
The ceasefire makes permanent a deal that Mr. Trump
made last week with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo-
gan, under which the U.S. allowed Turkey to occupy part of
northern Syria in exchange for Turkey allowing Kurdish
forces to leave the area without attacking them. Under the
terms of the deal, Mr. Trump will also lift sanctions on Anka-
ra imposed after its initial invasion of Syria, including 50-
per-cent tariffs on Turkish steel.
In addition, the U.S. will not interfere in a separate pact
Mr. Erdogan made with Russian President Vladimir Putin
that allows Russian troops and the forces of Syrian dictator
Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Mr. Putin’s, to occupy formerly
Kurdish-controlled areas, one Trump administration official
told reporters in a White House background briefing.
Mr. Erdogan wants a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the
border to return millions of refugees who have entered Tur-
key since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, and to keep
Kurdish forces away from Turkey. Ankara views those forces
as terrorists.
The crisis began earlier this month when, after a phone
call with Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Trump said the U.S. would stand
aside as Turkey invaded Kurdish-held areas in Syria. After
Turkish forces killed hundreds of Kurds and prompted an
international outcry, the Trump administration agreed on
the ceasefire with Mr. Erdogan.
Republican lawmakers lined up Wednesday to demand
Mr. Trump leave U.S. troops in Syria.
Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the foreign-affairs
committee, said leaving the Kurds to fend for themselves
would make it less likely anyone else would want to ally
with the U.S. in future.
“It undermines other countries’ views of our reliability,”
he told The Globe and Mail at the Capitol. “And, by the way,
China and Russia and Iran and others are pointing that out
any chance they get.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Mr. Trump’s staunchest
congressional allies, said he would continue to gather sup-
port in Congress for a bill that would impose harsher sanc-
tions on Turkey in a bid to get a better deal for the Kurds. Mr.
Graham said he accepted Mr. Erdogan’s desire for a buffer
along Turkey’s border, but he wanted to see Mr. Putin’s and
Mr. al-Assad’s forces out of the area.
“We ain’t going to accept no Russians,” he said. “A win-
win is protecting our relationship with the Kurds, but also
giving space to Turkey. That’s my goal.”
The rupture between Mr. Trump and his caucus comes at
a critical time. He is facing an impeachment inquiry in the
House of Representatives. If the Democratic-controlled
House passes one or more articles of impeachment, it will be
up to the Republican-majority Senate to decide whether to
remove him from office.
Lisel Hintz, an expert on Turkey at Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, said the U.S. has “abdicated responsibility” in north-
ern Syria and put the Kurds in a dangerous situation. But she
contended that Mr. Trump’s decision-making is so chaotic, it
is impossible to see this move as a broader change of the U.S.
position in the Middle East. Mr. Trump’s initial decision to
pull back from Syria, for instance, resulted abruptly froma
telephone call with Mr. Erdogan.
“It’s a fundamental mistake to see this as a shift in U.S.
foreign policy because I don’t think we can speak of a co-
ordinated U.S. foreign policy,” Prof. Hintz said in an inter-
view. “We see policies shift so quickly because of phone
calls.”NEWS |Trump:Republican
lawmakerscallonPresident
toleaveU.S.troopsinSyria
FROMAAconvoyofnewrefugeesarriveattheBardarashcampinnorthernIraq.OnWednesday,19busloadsarrived
atthecamp,eachcarrying30refugees.