Hakan Demir
Rookie
- Oct 20, 2021
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The long lasting war in Syria has demonstrated that common ground in American-Turkish diplomacy is found in Kurds. In the context of Kurdish formations’ bold enmity for a strong regional player like Turkey the US plays a role of a mother Teresa in their eyes, the one that supports and protects the Syrian minorities. It is evident that Kurds will do anything to preserve the support and disrupt the development of relations between Washington and Ankara especially within the Syrian case.
Last week the situation in the northern regions of Syria has rapidly escalated as a result of an explosion of a Turkish convoy in Aleppo province, which resulted in the death of 2 Turkish soldiers. Syrian Democratic Forces were accused of organizing this attack and on the 11th October Turkish president Erdogan had an intriguing response on the matter. The leader stated that Ankara is ready to take firm actions to get rid of terrorist threats in northern regions of Syria. That statement has raised genuine panic in the Kurdish administration due to Erdogan’s transparent hints of conducting another military operation in the province.
Shortly after on the 13th of October on the official page of an American organization “Rewards for Justice” in Twitter a warning of imposters who spread fabricated posters under the name of the organization was published. In this poster it is said that the US is ought to pay a substantial money reward for the information on the location of chiefs of terrorist organizations “Ahrar al-Sharqia”, “Suleyman Shah Division” and “Sultan Murad”, which are accused of various crimes against humanity. The idea behind this fabricated material is to complicate an already not so simple relationship between the US and Turkey. Taking into account all of the recent events and their chronology one could deduct that creating such fake posters could be done by someone who would benefit the most out of this situation and in this instance Kurds come to mind the most.
Firstly, as it was said before Kurdish administration is prepared to do anything to undermine the development of Turkish-American cooperation in Syria. Secondly, SDF conduct continuous military operations against armed groups that are being accused of malicious crimes. Imposing American sanctions on “Ahrar al-Sharqia” in July 2021 has given Kurds hope of the continuance of an advantageous for them actions from the US and maybe that has nudged them to create fake posts under the name of “Rewards for Justice” organization.
If that is true then Kurdish plan has failed. Washington has refuted the authenticity of those posters and the wanted result was not reached. At this instant many outcomes will depend on the strategy of the American administration i.e. will there be a meeting with Erdogan to discuss his intentions in Syria? Many expect that the US will talk Turkey out of starting a military campaign however it is entirely possible that Joe Biden prefers not to be at loggerheads with an important and strong ally.
