This is excellent, Kevork. So poignant and spot on.
Around 5 years ago, I was telling my Kurdish barbers that whatever they do, they must never trust the US. This disturbed them but they listened. I say the same thing to my Ukrainian neighbours, even my Polish neighbours. Never put your whole lot in with the US.
That's because I've been saying it to the British, the Irish and Europeans since the 1980s. Over that time they are all now completely dependent on the US. They were seduced, corrupted, allowed US corporations and it's tech to control and own everything. They developed nothing themselves and now look what's happening. It may not have been as violent as what happened to you; more insidious in nature, but that's where we are. The UK and Europe are utter dependent vassals.
I hope you do not mind me mentioning this but join the dots and the wider pattern reveals itself.
When you understand the history of the US; it's development from colonialism to the late twentieth century, it forged itself (in this context) through the same coercion, corruption -insidious and brutally violent - and so on in the same way.
The small cabal of global maniacs that emanate from the US understand how they did it and are now repeating that process around the globe. Wake up everybody.
Apoists, not just Kurds (also Arabs, Turks, etc.) had no choice in terms of alliances. Neither Russia nor China, much less Iran or Turkey, would back them. They relied only on their own limited forces and very scattered anarchist/communist solidarity in the West. They needed an air force to defeat the ISIS and the USA (2016) provided it.
However they should have sent the USA packing after the Afrin genocide (2018), because it was clear that they offered no protection whatsoever once ISIS (brand) had been removed (largely recycled into HTS and NSA). At that point the Baath Regime was the only one which lent a hand, albeit a quite passive one, de facto accepting that only the SDF could actually fight against Turkey and their proxies. This was true even in Manbij later on, which was threatened by Turkey and formally transferred to Damascus but where effectively only the SDF could control the canton and be a credible deterrance vs Turkey.
Turkey has been encroaching on SDF territory with the almost total passivity of the USA and complicity of Russia for many years now.
In 2023, the suppossed "less aligned" or "ambiguous" status of Turkey ended for good with a massive IMF (US-led) loan that clearly reintegrated the polity into NATO, allowing for Sweden to join the bloc and the Artsakh genocide of Armenians (with Israeli participation and lamentable Russian Schadenfreude). In early 2024 Turkey was rewarded with the capture of most of Syria by their HTS (Al Qaeda) proxy (and also SNA in the norther borderlands, same thing ultimately but even more closely affiliated to Turkey if that's even possible). This was an operation in the making for a year and it's impossible that the various secret services were not aware of it, that's why I think that Russia particularly threw the Baath Regime under the bus, just as they had done before not defending it against Israeli bombings (in spite of verbal threats never materialized).
The reaction of the Apoists was all the time appeasing, notably a few months ago when Öcalan declared the PKK dissolved without any compensation by Turkey. In Syria they were "in talks" but such talks could never reach anywhere because it's like water and oil: totalitarian fascism and democratic communism, the worst male chauvinism and the most advanced women emancipation, can't mix.
The SDF are in a dire situation right now (all talks collapsed, and it could not be otherwise) and yet they remain the only antifascist hope for Syria and the wider region. If they fall (and it may well happen) it will be as bad as the fall of the Spanish Republic in 1939. Once HTS/Turkey take control of NE Syria, they will go for Iraq just as their ISIS precursors did (Iraq is now actively kicking out the USA again, one military base at a time, we know the drill, don't we?)
I hope for the best (SDF manages to resist somehow and miraculously bounces back to liberate everything in revolutionary fashion) but I fear the worst. "When the past has not yet died and the future is not yet here, this is the time of monsters" (Gramsci).
The SAA, Hezbollah, and Iran repeatedly offered support to the SDF, but the latter said they won't join an alliance with "authoritarian powers". The SDF insisted on political decentralization until they lost everything. Their best bet was the SAA.
I know that the Syrian Baathist state cooperated tactically with the SDF in several occasions but crucially after Afrin. That was after they had already established the US alliance and it belonged to a status quo that existed for almost all the time between Damascus and the NSF, which evolved into the AANES entity (politically agreed autonomous region within in Syria) and the repeated Apoist claim that they did not want to separate from Syria but wanted an end to the autocracy anyhow.
SDF did not attack Syria-Damascus, nor vice versa, except for some very punctual standoffs. SDF did not undermine Syria-Damascus except for defending their own democratic and socialist self-rule.
I don't think that the SAA was a good bet considering how swiftly in collapsed and how powerless it was without Russian backing, as we saw in their incapacity to liberate Idlib.
As for Iran (never mind Hizbollah), I have no idea but the Apoists are also oppossed to the Iranian theocracy, Persian-centric centralism and subordinated role of wome. Kurds have been very often at the forefront of protests against the fascistoid theocracy (even if Persian-centric opposition does not acknowledge them almost ever) and there is or used to be an Apoist guerrilla opperating in Eastern Kurdistan too.
But anyway, the central problem is Turkey and has always been. The mirage was, not just for the Kurds but also for Russia, Iran, etc. to think that Turkey was an independent actor, let alone trutsworthy. This may have been to some extent true in the 2016-23 period, especially around 2020, when France and Turkey were one click away from direct war over Libya and when Al Qaeda massively expanded in the Sahel region (replacing nominally ISIS and extending their operations to Niger and Burkina Faso, all of which ended up falling to Russia-friendly juntas ultimately).
But after 2023 (IMF mega-loan, followed by the liberation of the Azovite war criminals and removal of Turkish veto to Swedish to NATO... and then by the Artsakh genocide (which also involved Israel), I believe that the re-assimilation of Turkey to the US Empire in full (and its satellite Azerbaijan, which has been operating against Iran and Russia and not only against Armenia) was clear for all to see. Ultimately that caused the collapse of Syria-Damascus, something that Iran (and other powers) should have seen coming, because it was a year-long of preparations.
Remember anyhow that Iran did not or could not help Assad at all and, while Hizbollah fought bravely that was only because they were (again) caught in the fray without any warning.
Anyway, if SDF falls, then there's no hope remaining for Syria (or even the wider Middle East). They're the last bastion of common sense, all the rest is fascism.
HOW TRUE! "The totalitarian fascism—the worst type of the male chauvinism—and the most advanced women's emancipation, can't mix." Disregarding their internal politics or the Abrahamic brotherhood sects they belong to, Patriarchs of the world will unite and never accept free, unveiled, armed women in their midst—until they are defeated. It’s their final struggle for domination. The time of the worst possible monsters and psychopaths. (Turks and Israelis are the worst). The Spanish anarchist republic fell, but their ideas and practises are still percolating around the globe and keep hope alive. By now, so many different people experienced them in action.
Just one objection: the Spanish Republic and the Anarchist-led Spanish (or Catalan) Revolution were different things and the latter was destroyed by the former in the name of ant-fascist unity. There are many parallels but up to a point.
But I'm sure that armed women are a major element in defeating neo-Patrirachist (fascist-oid) forces. We men can more easily live in that kind of regime (if we don't get killed) but for women that's total defeat, slavery even, and that was already seen in the previous siege of Kobani (2014), when the YPJ (women militias) led by example where the YPG (men) were often wanting to retreat. I often wonder what would have happened if Afghanistan or also secular Baathist Syria had armed female units, my belief is that it would have made the advance of the fascists much much harder, maybe impossible.
Yes indeed. Too greedy. They had their chance and they chose a golden calf instead. To quote the Bible: "The love of money is the root of all evil". I might add "power" to that love list!!
It's awful for regular Kurds who I'm sure had no say in this whatsoever. :(
Absolutely no compassion for Kurds: accomplices of Turks during the 1915’s Armenian Genocide, Us’ and Zionists’ collaborators. They did not learn from history: US was never a reliable Ally and has always abandoned his allies. Ask Vietnam, Afghanistan, Irak’s Shias.
Spot on Anton! That is the whole point of this, it is not the first time that Kurdish "freedom" movements (SDF, PKK, Barzani family in Iraq) have been played by the West.
Also I find it very difficult to forget the ethnic cleansing, in some villages, of non-Kurds from a very mixed and predominantly Arab population in the North of Syria. I am betting if you really want equality for women you want equality for everybody; the SDF demonstrated that their values are selectively observed.
I think the SDF made a strategic error by playing the role of the choke point against the former Syrian state. By weakening Damascus and then destroying the SAA, they have exposed themselves to al-Qaeda.
This is excellent, Kevork. So poignant and spot on.
Around 5 years ago, I was telling my Kurdish barbers that whatever they do, they must never trust the US. This disturbed them but they listened. I say the same thing to my Ukrainian neighbours, even my Polish neighbours. Never put your whole lot in with the US.
That's because I've been saying it to the British, the Irish and Europeans since the 1980s. Over that time they are all now completely dependent on the US. They were seduced, corrupted, allowed US corporations and it's tech to control and own everything. They developed nothing themselves and now look what's happening. It may not have been as violent as what happened to you; more insidious in nature, but that's where we are. The UK and Europe are utter dependent vassals.
I hope you do not mind me mentioning this but join the dots and the wider pattern reveals itself.
When you understand the history of the US; it's development from colonialism to the late twentieth century, it forged itself (in this context) through the same coercion, corruption -insidious and brutally violent - and so on in the same way.
The small cabal of global maniacs that emanate from the US understand how they did it and are now repeating that process around the globe. Wake up everybody.
They rile you up and arm you up to fight their wars for them, then they abandon you. Always,
Bravo!!!!!! That's all I can say, Kevork.
America has been abandoning Kurds for as long as I can remember so why should anyone be surprised?
Brilliant synopsis of a tragedy people can learn from.
Apoists, not just Kurds (also Arabs, Turks, etc.) had no choice in terms of alliances. Neither Russia nor China, much less Iran or Turkey, would back them. They relied only on their own limited forces and very scattered anarchist/communist solidarity in the West. They needed an air force to defeat the ISIS and the USA (2016) provided it.
However they should have sent the USA packing after the Afrin genocide (2018), because it was clear that they offered no protection whatsoever once ISIS (brand) had been removed (largely recycled into HTS and NSA). At that point the Baath Regime was the only one which lent a hand, albeit a quite passive one, de facto accepting that only the SDF could actually fight against Turkey and their proxies. This was true even in Manbij later on, which was threatened by Turkey and formally transferred to Damascus but where effectively only the SDF could control the canton and be a credible deterrance vs Turkey.
Turkey has been encroaching on SDF territory with the almost total passivity of the USA and complicity of Russia for many years now.
In 2023, the suppossed "less aligned" or "ambiguous" status of Turkey ended for good with a massive IMF (US-led) loan that clearly reintegrated the polity into NATO, allowing for Sweden to join the bloc and the Artsakh genocide of Armenians (with Israeli participation and lamentable Russian Schadenfreude). In early 2024 Turkey was rewarded with the capture of most of Syria by their HTS (Al Qaeda) proxy (and also SNA in the norther borderlands, same thing ultimately but even more closely affiliated to Turkey if that's even possible). This was an operation in the making for a year and it's impossible that the various secret services were not aware of it, that's why I think that Russia particularly threw the Baath Regime under the bus, just as they had done before not defending it against Israeli bombings (in spite of verbal threats never materialized).
The reaction of the Apoists was all the time appeasing, notably a few months ago when Öcalan declared the PKK dissolved without any compensation by Turkey. In Syria they were "in talks" but such talks could never reach anywhere because it's like water and oil: totalitarian fascism and democratic communism, the worst male chauvinism and the most advanced women emancipation, can't mix.
The SDF are in a dire situation right now (all talks collapsed, and it could not be otherwise) and yet they remain the only antifascist hope for Syria and the wider region. If they fall (and it may well happen) it will be as bad as the fall of the Spanish Republic in 1939. Once HTS/Turkey take control of NE Syria, they will go for Iraq just as their ISIS precursors did (Iraq is now actively kicking out the USA again, one military base at a time, we know the drill, don't we?)
I hope for the best (SDF manages to resist somehow and miraculously bounces back to liberate everything in revolutionary fashion) but I fear the worst. "When the past has not yet died and the future is not yet here, this is the time of monsters" (Gramsci).
The SAA, Hezbollah, and Iran repeatedly offered support to the SDF, but the latter said they won't join an alliance with "authoritarian powers". The SDF insisted on political decentralization until they lost everything. Their best bet was the SAA.
I know that the Syrian Baathist state cooperated tactically with the SDF in several occasions but crucially after Afrin. That was after they had already established the US alliance and it belonged to a status quo that existed for almost all the time between Damascus and the NSF, which evolved into the AANES entity (politically agreed autonomous region within in Syria) and the repeated Apoist claim that they did not want to separate from Syria but wanted an end to the autocracy anyhow.
SDF did not attack Syria-Damascus, nor vice versa, except for some very punctual standoffs. SDF did not undermine Syria-Damascus except for defending their own democratic and socialist self-rule.
I don't think that the SAA was a good bet considering how swiftly in collapsed and how powerless it was without Russian backing, as we saw in their incapacity to liberate Idlib.
As for Iran (never mind Hizbollah), I have no idea but the Apoists are also oppossed to the Iranian theocracy, Persian-centric centralism and subordinated role of wome. Kurds have been very often at the forefront of protests against the fascistoid theocracy (even if Persian-centric opposition does not acknowledge them almost ever) and there is or used to be an Apoist guerrilla opperating in Eastern Kurdistan too.
But anyway, the central problem is Turkey and has always been. The mirage was, not just for the Kurds but also for Russia, Iran, etc. to think that Turkey was an independent actor, let alone trutsworthy. This may have been to some extent true in the 2016-23 period, especially around 2020, when France and Turkey were one click away from direct war over Libya and when Al Qaeda massively expanded in the Sahel region (replacing nominally ISIS and extending their operations to Niger and Burkina Faso, all of which ended up falling to Russia-friendly juntas ultimately).
But after 2023 (IMF mega-loan, followed by the liberation of the Azovite war criminals and removal of Turkish veto to Swedish to NATO... and then by the Artsakh genocide (which also involved Israel), I believe that the re-assimilation of Turkey to the US Empire in full (and its satellite Azerbaijan, which has been operating against Iran and Russia and not only against Armenia) was clear for all to see. Ultimately that caused the collapse of Syria-Damascus, something that Iran (and other powers) should have seen coming, because it was a year-long of preparations.
Remember anyhow that Iran did not or could not help Assad at all and, while Hizbollah fought bravely that was only because they were (again) caught in the fray without any warning.
Anyway, if SDF falls, then there's no hope remaining for Syria (or even the wider Middle East). They're the last bastion of common sense, all the rest is fascism.
HOW TRUE! "The totalitarian fascism—the worst type of the male chauvinism—and the most advanced women's emancipation, can't mix." Disregarding their internal politics or the Abrahamic brotherhood sects they belong to, Patriarchs of the world will unite and never accept free, unveiled, armed women in their midst—until they are defeated. It’s their final struggle for domination. The time of the worst possible monsters and psychopaths. (Turks and Israelis are the worst). The Spanish anarchist republic fell, but their ideas and practises are still percolating around the globe and keep hope alive. By now, so many different people experienced them in action.
Just one objection: the Spanish Republic and the Anarchist-led Spanish (or Catalan) Revolution were different things and the latter was destroyed by the former in the name of ant-fascist unity. There are many parallels but up to a point.
But I'm sure that armed women are a major element in defeating neo-Patrirachist (fascist-oid) forces. We men can more easily live in that kind of regime (if we don't get killed) but for women that's total defeat, slavery even, and that was already seen in the previous siege of Kobani (2014), when the YPJ (women militias) led by example where the YPG (men) were often wanting to retreat. I often wonder what would have happened if Afghanistan or also secular Baathist Syria had armed female units, my belief is that it would have made the advance of the fascists much much harder, maybe impossible.
". . .and the latter was destroyed by the former in the name of ant-fascist unity." The latter and Stalin.
Great work Kevork, have you tried Trita Parsi?
Yes indeed. Too greedy. They had their chance and they chose a golden calf instead. To quote the Bible: "The love of money is the root of all evil". I might add "power" to that love list!!
It's awful for regular Kurds who I'm sure had no say in this whatsoever. :(
Absolutely no compassion for Kurds: accomplices of Turks during the 1915’s Armenian Genocide, Us’ and Zionists’ collaborators. They did not learn from history: US was never a reliable Ally and has always abandoned his allies. Ask Vietnam, Afghanistan, Irak’s Shias.
Spot on Anton! That is the whole point of this, it is not the first time that Kurdish "freedom" movements (SDF, PKK, Barzani family in Iraq) have been played by the West.
Also I find it very difficult to forget the ethnic cleansing, in some villages, of non-Kurds from a very mixed and predominantly Arab population in the North of Syria. I am betting if you really want equality for women you want equality for everybody; the SDF demonstrated that their values are selectively observed.
You are quick to blame but don't know much about their amazing acomplishments. And the fact that their "only friends are the mountains."
I think the SDF made a strategic error by playing the role of the choke point against the former Syrian state. By weakening Damascus and then destroying the SAA, they have exposed themselves to al-Qaeda.