BY PAULA AKAKPO
STAFF WRITER
Some politicians have come out against President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of troops out of Syria. However, if you weren’t a political analyst understanding the reason for the backlash would be difficult. Here’s why recent events are causing so much turmoil.
On October 6th the White House announced the U.S. would withdraw troops from a region of northern Syria that borders Turkey. At that time Turkey had incurred into Syria, fighting against those it considers terrorist. One of the groups are the Kurdish fighters who have been allies of the U.S. against fighting ISIS. The US partnership with the Kurds in Syria began during the Obama administration but under Trump the fighters were armed.
The Kurds are an ethnic group located in Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia. The Kurds are without a homeland because of the Western powers who drew the region’s map after World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 established a Turkush state but it omitted a Kurdish nation-state and the population was divided across several different countries.
The Kurds continue to face repression and violence and have struggled to maintain their identities. In Syria they are denied basic rights and citizenship and face severe discrimination. Thought Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad, supported the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s, it was mostly to disrupt Turkey.
Turkey has had a long history with the Kurds living there. For decades the PKK in Turkey have been trying to establish their own independent Kurdish state at the border. In 1984 the PKK waged an armed war against the Turkish state, a conflict that has killed 40,000 people.
In the Turkish perspective, if there was a Kurdish run state at their border it would be an existential threat to their government and they want to completely eliminate the Kurds.
This is why the U.S. withdrawing troops from Syria is so problematic. When the U.S. leaves Syria the Kurds will be facing an attack, and Turkey has already invaded Syria. Hundred have been killed and wounded and 130,000 people have been displaced out of Northern Syria.
Though President Trump continues to insist that the Kurds are no danger, “The Kurds are much safer right now. But the Kurds know how to fight — and, as I said, they’re not angels. They’re not angels.” That is simply not the case. At the moment the Kurds are facing total annihilation by Turkey, and their closest allies, the United States, has abandoned them.
And this will not only affect the Kurds. The U.S. has lost its anti-ISIS ally. Making it harder to defeat ISIS in future years.
Works Cited
Kirby, Jen. “9 Questions about Turkey, Syria, and the Kurds You Were Too Embarrassed to
Ask.” Vox, Vox, 16 Oct. 2019, https://www.vox.com/world/2019/10/16/20908262/turkey-syria-kurds-trump-invasion-questions.
Kirby, Jen. “What Really Happened in Syria over the Past 24 Hours, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 23
Oct. 2019,
Ward, Alex. “Trump Told 6 Falsehoods about Syria in 4 Minutes.” Vox, Vox, 16 Oct. 2019,