Trump administration has been 'very bad for the Kurds': Bernard-Henri Levy

After election tallies began to show that US voters had denied President Donald Trump a second term over the past week, French philosopher and public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy told Kurdistan 24 that the controversial leader's administration has dealt with Kurds in a negative way and has committed two distinct acts of betrayal against the ethnic group.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – After election tallies over the past week began to show that US voters had denied President Donald Trump a second term, French philosopher and public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy told Kurdistan 24 that the controversial leader's administration has dealt with Kurds in a negative way and has committed two distinct acts of betrayal against the ethnic group.

In an interview conducted over Skype, Levy, also an author and filmmaker, said that the situation during the Trump administration has been "very bad for the Kurds," noting, in particular, events that surrounded the Kurdistan Region's 2017 independence referendum.

"Masoud Barzani was not treated as a fair and loyal ally," he said.

This isn't the first time Levy has spoken to Kurdistan 24 on the subject. In March 2017, he spoke at length about the issue after the publication of his book: The Empire and the Five Kings: America’s Abdication and the Fate of the World. 

In the interview, which Kurdistan 24 presented in two separate installments, Levy said that he was prompted to write the book as he witnessed, in dismay, the American and European response to the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum and its aftermath: the Iranian-orchestrated assault on Kirkuk.

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In this week's Skype interview, he said, "The West for the first time had the blood of its best friends on its hand and not its enemies when Kirkuk was taken over." 

"The second betrayal with the Kurds was committed by the Trump administration two years later, specifically in 2019, during the decision to withdraw the US army and grant Turkey and its militias the green light to occupy the Kurdish lands in Syria in Rojava."

"Neither I, nor anyone else, can predict the policy of the Biden administration towards the Kurds, but I can say it will not be worse than the last four years," Levy added.

“Myself with my friend Thomas Kaplan started a campaign in order to inject the Kurdish cause in the platforms of the two parties, Republicans and Democrats, in the US through our non-profit campaign called Justice for Kurds (JFK) to ask them to introduce the Kurdish cause in the two platforms," he added. "I can tell you that in the Democratic Party it was not too difficult to do.” 

The French intellectual explained that there is real support among Democratic congressmen towards the Kurds, but at the same time indicating that no one can be sure, "I really think that, among the people who will be in charge of US foreign policy in the Biden administration, the Kurds will have some real true friends."

Levy also expressed his optimism about the future of the Kurdish cause, vowing that he would continue his endeavors with those sympathetic to the plight of the Kurds through his organization.

“Though that," he concluded, "you will have a vocal, and a tool for campaigning for the truth and justice in the next years."

Editing by John J. Catherine