16 oktober 2019
Last week Turkey invaded Syria to elimate the threat posed by an autonomous Syrian-Kurdish region and to resettle a certain part of its 3,5 million Syrian (?) refugees. Hereby some key points for consideration and central questions.
1°) Turkey says it looks for a solution for its 3,5 million refugees and wants to create a buffer of 30 km in the North of Syria to resettle a part of these refugees. Europe is in a difficult position to condemn Turkey for trying to find such a buffer-zone; in practice Turkey is for the European Union a gigantic buffer zone to settle (=keep) refugees.
2°) One might of course object that the idea to artificially create a border zone of 30 km and to settle people in that area who did not live there before, is a very bad idea. BUT : ARE THERE BETTER IDEAS ? When will the Syrian refugees who are in Turkey OR Europe go back ? Can they actually go back to the Assad-controlled area without the risk of being persecuted ? Does Assad want his Syrians to return ? Here we arrive at the fundamental point that refugees in need should according to many international treaties obtain protection in receiving countries. But there seems no clear agreement on obligations to enable the return of refugees. Already for generations, Palestinians are not allowed to return to Israel. Will we now see a new gulf of permant refugees ; Syrians who will never go back to Syria ?
3°) Trump mentioned that the Kurds did not fight in Normandy (and by exception this time he was correct). But also the Turks did not fight in Normandy and what is more, they did not fight IS in Syria. There were always suspicions that they sympathized more with IS than with the Kurds in Syria. And now suddenly when the war against IS is finished (again, according to Trump – and now he is probably wrong) the Turks invade Syria (what they did not do when the Yezidi’s were slaughtered). And they bring with them what is called “jihadist” groups and we can only wonder who these jihadist groups might be. Is that the remnant of Al-Nusra, a grouping linked to Al Qaida ?
4°) The international press has insufficiently devoted attention to the situation of the Kurds in Turkey. In that respect we can refer already just to the fate of the Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, head of the HDP party and imprisoned for already more than two years in Turkey.