DEMO
15-05-2017, 10:39
Who will take the war to ISIS in Raqqa? Washington is betting on the Kurds. But their record in other towns they conquered is not a happy one.
MUHAMMAD NOOR
05.12.17 1:00 AM ET
President Donald Trump this week moved closer to an all-out assault on Raqqa, the self-styled capital of the so-called Islamic State, when he approved the delivery of heavy arms to a Kurdish-led militia operating in northern Syria. NATO ally Turkey vehemently opposes the move because of the militia’s affiliation with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatists who are at war with Turkey.
Another big issue for Ankara is who will take over in Raqqa, a city that had until recently a population of 200,000, after ISIS is ousted.
Last August, when U.S. air support enabled the Kurds to capture the Arab town of Manbij, the PKK took charge. International reporters have been unable to chronicle what’s happened in Manbij, but citizen journalist Muhammad Noor recounts how the PKK, which the U.S. and Turkey view as a terrorist organization, introduced a regime of ethnic discrimination, then opened the way for the Assad regime to return to Manbij and take up key positions of power.
This letter is part of a project that draws on citizen journalists to depict daily life in war zones where much of the world press cannot travel due to threats from the warring parties. The author is writing under a pseudonym for his own protection. The project, based at Stony Brook University’s Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting, is funded by the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation. The Daily Beast’s Istanbul-based contributor Roy Gutman edited the following text:
MANBIJ, Syria—When Islamic State extremists captured Manbij three years ago, they forced the population to pray at mosque, ordered women to wear full chador and they beheaded their opponents in public.
But if you attended their religious courses and agreed to their rules you could get a job and earn enough to sustain your family.
That world turned upside down last August, when a Kurdish-led ground force with U.S. air support ousted ISIS from Manbij. Arabs were among the fighters in the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF, but it was Kurds from outside Syria who suddenly became our new masters.
Local Kurds, who comprise 10 per cent of the population of 100,000, became the privileged class. They now dominate local commerce and they get special treatment from the police. Religious observance shifted 180 degrees. Traditional practice such as covering women is forbidden—not by decree but in practice. Anyone who objects can be arrested and tortured. I know from personal experience.
Since August, all the key positions in the SDF and in the Manbij administration were taken over by Kurds from outside Syria—from the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK. We called them Qandilians, those trained in Qandil, Iraq, the PKK’s mountain stronghold.
You knew them from the cars they drive, festooned with posters of Abdullah Ocalan, the founder of the PKK, who’s now sitting in a Turkish jail near Istanbul. They didn’t use their real names; they operated behind the scenes.
Make no mistake. We were very happy to be rid of ISIS. But the new order became so oppressive that some Arabs spoke openly about the “good old days of ISIS.” They saw the new Kurdish masters as destroying the social fabric, spoiling centuries of good relations between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens.
It was a nightmarish eight months, and it’s not fully behind us. In February, when Turkey threatened to seize Manbij, the U.S. acted to block it. Today, the U.S. Army maintains forces north of Manbij, and they regularly visit the town. Russia has based military personnel west of Manbij, located between Kurdish and Turkish forces, and they also pay regular visits.
The Syrian Democratic Forces said they were turning over control of Manbij to the Syrian regime, and Syria then claimed control over the city. That’s not the case. Syria’s “border guards” force consists of Arabs from the SDF who take orders from the Kurdish leadership in Manbij.
But the regime has been present since the summer. After Kurds arrived, the regime took over the schools and paid the salaries of civil servants. And it made extensive use of the PKK security apparatus for its own political aims.
There are no Syrian flags in the streets, only those of the Manbij military council, a front for the PKK. But the Baath Party is back. Anyone wanting to become a school administrator must be a member. Schoolchildren carry identity cards bearing the image of Bashar al Assad. And “Corrective Movement” day, commemorating the coup that brought the Assad family to power in 1970, is also back. It was celebrated as a national holiday Nov. 16—a day off from school and work.
Those are outward signs of regime influence. Security is in the hands of Kurdish intelligence and police units, but so many of their actions directly benefit the regime that they must be taking direction from Damascus.
If I could describe Manbij in a phrase, I’d call it the city of dreams. The dream of the Kurds is to dominate the city and establish an independent state along Syria’s northern border with Turkey. The Assad regime dreams of bringing the entire country back under its control. And it’s the dream of the Syrian rebels, who controlled Manbij from July 2012 until ISIS took over in January 2014, to liberate the town once again. All the dreams are directed at one market, and that is the United States, which alone decides what dream will come true.
For the residents, Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmens alike, the dream is for the city to be free of ISIS, the PKK and the Assad dictatorship.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/12/u-s-arms-kurds-who-are-isis-enemies-turkey-enemies-assad-friends
navo lid amerika steunt terroristische pkk en pkk steunt assad de genocidepleger..
MUHAMMAD NOOR
05.12.17 1:00 AM ET
President Donald Trump this week moved closer to an all-out assault on Raqqa, the self-styled capital of the so-called Islamic State, when he approved the delivery of heavy arms to a Kurdish-led militia operating in northern Syria. NATO ally Turkey vehemently opposes the move because of the militia’s affiliation with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatists who are at war with Turkey.
Another big issue for Ankara is who will take over in Raqqa, a city that had until recently a population of 200,000, after ISIS is ousted.
Last August, when U.S. air support enabled the Kurds to capture the Arab town of Manbij, the PKK took charge. International reporters have been unable to chronicle what’s happened in Manbij, but citizen journalist Muhammad Noor recounts how the PKK, which the U.S. and Turkey view as a terrorist organization, introduced a regime of ethnic discrimination, then opened the way for the Assad regime to return to Manbij and take up key positions of power.
This letter is part of a project that draws on citizen journalists to depict daily life in war zones where much of the world press cannot travel due to threats from the warring parties. The author is writing under a pseudonym for his own protection. The project, based at Stony Brook University’s Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting, is funded by the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation. The Daily Beast’s Istanbul-based contributor Roy Gutman edited the following text:
MANBIJ, Syria—When Islamic State extremists captured Manbij three years ago, they forced the population to pray at mosque, ordered women to wear full chador and they beheaded their opponents in public.
But if you attended their religious courses and agreed to their rules you could get a job and earn enough to sustain your family.
That world turned upside down last August, when a Kurdish-led ground force with U.S. air support ousted ISIS from Manbij. Arabs were among the fighters in the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF, but it was Kurds from outside Syria who suddenly became our new masters.
Local Kurds, who comprise 10 per cent of the population of 100,000, became the privileged class. They now dominate local commerce and they get special treatment from the police. Religious observance shifted 180 degrees. Traditional practice such as covering women is forbidden—not by decree but in practice. Anyone who objects can be arrested and tortured. I know from personal experience.
Since August, all the key positions in the SDF and in the Manbij administration were taken over by Kurds from outside Syria—from the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK. We called them Qandilians, those trained in Qandil, Iraq, the PKK’s mountain stronghold.
You knew them from the cars they drive, festooned with posters of Abdullah Ocalan, the founder of the PKK, who’s now sitting in a Turkish jail near Istanbul. They didn’t use their real names; they operated behind the scenes.
Make no mistake. We were very happy to be rid of ISIS. But the new order became so oppressive that some Arabs spoke openly about the “good old days of ISIS.” They saw the new Kurdish masters as destroying the social fabric, spoiling centuries of good relations between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens.
It was a nightmarish eight months, and it’s not fully behind us. In February, when Turkey threatened to seize Manbij, the U.S. acted to block it. Today, the U.S. Army maintains forces north of Manbij, and they regularly visit the town. Russia has based military personnel west of Manbij, located between Kurdish and Turkish forces, and they also pay regular visits.
The Syrian Democratic Forces said they were turning over control of Manbij to the Syrian regime, and Syria then claimed control over the city. That’s not the case. Syria’s “border guards” force consists of Arabs from the SDF who take orders from the Kurdish leadership in Manbij.
But the regime has been present since the summer. After Kurds arrived, the regime took over the schools and paid the salaries of civil servants. And it made extensive use of the PKK security apparatus for its own political aims.
There are no Syrian flags in the streets, only those of the Manbij military council, a front for the PKK. But the Baath Party is back. Anyone wanting to become a school administrator must be a member. Schoolchildren carry identity cards bearing the image of Bashar al Assad. And “Corrective Movement” day, commemorating the coup that brought the Assad family to power in 1970, is also back. It was celebrated as a national holiday Nov. 16—a day off from school and work.
Those are outward signs of regime influence. Security is in the hands of Kurdish intelligence and police units, but so many of their actions directly benefit the regime that they must be taking direction from Damascus.
If I could describe Manbij in a phrase, I’d call it the city of dreams. The dream of the Kurds is to dominate the city and establish an independent state along Syria’s northern border with Turkey. The Assad regime dreams of bringing the entire country back under its control. And it’s the dream of the Syrian rebels, who controlled Manbij from July 2012 until ISIS took over in January 2014, to liberate the town once again. All the dreams are directed at one market, and that is the United States, which alone decides what dream will come true.
For the residents, Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmens alike, the dream is for the city to be free of ISIS, the PKK and the Assad dictatorship.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/12/u-s-arms-kurds-who-are-isis-enemies-turkey-enemies-assad-friends
navo lid amerika steunt terroristische pkk en pkk steunt assad de genocidepleger..