War Crimes in Rojava:
NATO’s Silence on Turkish Attacks

Turkey, since October 4, a few days after the suicide bombing in Ankara on October 9, has started a new round of military attacks on Northern Syria (Rojava), which is under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian forces, as well as areas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and it continues to this day.

During this time, the Turkish army, under the pretext of ‘the right to self-defense’, has relentlessly bombarded the vital infrastructure of the autonomous regions of northern and eastern Syria (Rojava), claiming to target positions of the People’s Defense Units.

However, this claim by the Turkish government has been repeatedly denied by senior officials of the Syrian Democratic Forces and the People’s Defense Units (YPG). Senior officials of the Syrian Democratic Forces and the People’s Defense Units say that Turkey attacks civilian buildings, infrastructure, water and electricity supply sources, and other public facilities in northern and eastern Syria.

The Turkish government, in 304 different attacks (including 83 drone strikes and 221 artillery attacks) in October 2023, has primarily targeted the vital infrastructure of Rojava. In these attacks, the Turkish government has deliberately bombed at least 224 different locations, including infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, electricity and water supply stations, oil sites, municipalities, and similar buildings.

The successive aerial attacks by Turkey on the vital infrastructure of northern and eastern Syria have caused widespread destruction and incurred damages of more than one billion dollars. In addition, more than two million people have been deprived of access to their daily vital needs.

From ordinary people to poets, writers, philosophers, and politicians, war is generally condemned, especially after the end of World War II and all the destruction and slaughter it brought. The true face of war became clearer to the international community. However, this did not mean that humanity learned from all that killing and destruction to live in peace and tranquility afterwards. It seems that war and slaughter have always been a part of the unfortunate fate of humanity. Nonetheless, at least in the last century, war has had its own specific laws, and the parties involved in a war must keep children, women, and civilians safe from its harms.

But when a NATO member country openly declares in front of the world that it targets the infrastructure of a region and bombs not only these facilities but also schools and hospitals, and the world turns a blind eye to it, the talk of ethics in war zones and even ethics in the world of politics seems a bit far from reality today.

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The Kurdish Issue, Turkey’s Eternal Nightmare

Modern Turkey, founded on the principle of one nation and one state, has from its inception been governed by denying and eliminating other nationalities within its current geographical boundaries.

Successive governments in Turkey have largely succeeded in eradicating Armenians, Greeks, Circassians, and Arabs. The only nationality that resisted assimilation and stood against the ideology of one nation, one state, were the Kurds. Therefore, when the first Kurdish newspaper was published in Cairo, it met with severe opposition from Turkey. A common saying among Turkish politicians and statesmen is, “If a country named Kurdistan were to be established on the moon, we would oppose it,” and they have acted on this policy as much as they could.

A century of Turkish policy towards the Kurdish issue has fueled a forty-year war that has left tens of thousands of Turkish and Kurdish mothers grieving.

After years of conflict, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who initially relied on the Muslim identity of the Kurds to gain their votes, initiated a peace process with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and engaged in talks with Abdullah Öcalan, the party’s leader and founder, who was imprisoned on İmralı Island. These negotiations failed to reach a conclusion, leading to the collapse of the peace process.

The breakdown of talks between the PKK, led by Abdullah Öcalan, and the Turkish government, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had two main reasons. Firstly, the Kurdish movement in Turkey aimed to gain seats in the Turkish parliament, challenging the majority held by Erdogan’s ruling party. Secondly, the Kurdish struggle against ISIS was a critical factor. The Kurds believed that the Turkish government under Erdogan played a role in ISIS’s attacks on Kurds in northern Syria, alleging that Turkey kept its borders open for ISIS members to enter and exit Rojava and pressured the group to attack the Kurds.

Following the failure of the peace process, Kurdish regions in Turkey became more militarized, and Kurdish politicians were imprisoned. The Turkish government managed to embroil the Kurds in both Syria and Iraq in a war with ISIS, while simultaneously promising the complete eradication of the PKK. However, the outcome was not as Erdogan had anticipated. The Kurds in Iraq and Syria managed to defeat ISIS, gained international recognition, and, in Syria, captured ISIS’s capital in collaboration with coalition forces. This was a goal Erdogan had hoped to achieve himself, but the West, particularly the United States, aware of Turkey’s covert relations with ISIS, chose to align with the Kurds instead, leading to the fall of ISIS’s capital.

A report by Kurdish Center for Studies describes the horrific reality faced by the people of Rojava, a region in Northern Syria, due to intense aerial bombardments by the Turkish military. It paints a picture of a nightmarish scenario where children search for their father’s head, pets flee in terror, and families are torn apart by violence and death. The bombings, described as turning night into day, have caused widespread trauma, with children becoming mute from fear, mothers losing recognition of their own children, and families choosing to stay together, even at the risk of collective death. The situation is further compounded by a lack of basic necessities like power, water, and food. This brutal campaign began in early October, marking one of the deadliest periods in Rojava since November 2022, when over 1,500 strikes resulted in numerous casualties, including civilians and fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian government soldiers. This tragic episode is a stark representation of the suffering and destruction caused by military aggression.

The Kurdish Center for Studies

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Turkey’s Military and Diplomatic Efforts against Rojava

Despite Turkey’s military and diplomatic efforts against Rojava, the region has established itself, opening diplomatic offices in Washington, Moscow, Berlin, and Paris. Rojava’s representatives were officially welcomed at the Élysée Palace. When Turkey couldn’t achieve its objectives against the Kurds through ISIS, it directly entered the conflict, using Western military equipment to wage war on Rojava. In its military operation against the Afrin Canton, it did not shy away from bombing hospitals. Turkey also used jihadist and Islamist forces against the Kurds, forcing the people of Afrin to leave their homes and settling jihadists in their places.

The Turkish army used phosphorus bombs against civilians in Rojava and chemical gases against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party forces in Qandil. Recently, Turkey has intensified its attacks on Rojava. Erdogan and the Turkish government seize every opportunity to pressure Rojava in an attempt to completely overthrow this autonomous region. The weak stance and silence of Western governments regarding Turkey’s actions against Rojava embolden Turkey to intensify its attacks.

Turkey’s strategies range from direct attacks on Kurds in Rojava, pressuring Western countries using the refugee card, holding Sweden’s NATO membership hostage, creating tension and division between Kurds and Arab tribes in eastern Deir ez-Zor, efforts to free ISIS prisoners under Kurdish control, granting concessions to Russia, and even meeting with Bashar al-Assad and establishing relations with the Syrian government, all aimed at weakening the Kurds in the north and northeast of Syria.

From the bombing of infrastructure to changing the demography

Turkey, in its recent two-month aerial campaign against Rojava using state-of-the-art drones and fighter jets, has targeted hospitals, electricity production and distribution centers, wheat silos, drinking water reservoirs, oil wells, and all economic infrastructures and educational facilities. The majority of casualties in these attacks have been the elderly, children, and civilians.

While the destruction and bombing can be rebuilt, albeit with difficulty, Turkey’s policy of changing the demographic fabric of Rojava is another strategy that is set to become a major issue in the region. The Turkish government is constructing numerous settlements in the areas under its control and settling foreign citizens there, similar to what it did in Northern Cyprus.

Beyond settling jihadists in the homes of Kurds forced to leave Afrin, Turkey is building settlements in the lands, forests, and destroyed olive groves to change the demographic structure of Afrin and its surroundings by settling foreign citizens, a tactic previously employed by Saddam Hussein in Kirkuk, Hafez Assad in Syrian Kurdistan, and Turkey itself in Northern Cyprus.

Despite all these actions, bombings, and military operations by Turkey, Rojava remains a reality, and Turkey will ultimately have to acknowledge its existence, similar to the Kurdish Region in Iraq. Recently, Joe Biden emphasized the continued presence of American forces in Rojava, stating that these forces are stationed in key areas for operations against security threats and terrorism, in collaboration with local skilled forces. He also affirmed that the United States’ support and aid will continue.

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My journey in creating this space was deeply inspired by James Baldwin’s powerful work, “The Fire Next Time”. Like Baldwin, who eloquently addressed themes of identity, race, and the human condition, this blog aims to be a beacon for open, honest, and sometimes uncomfortable discussions on similar issues.

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