Syrian Kurds urge guarantor states to halt Turkish drone attacks

"We firmly reject the ongoing perpetration of these crimes, and we condemn the silence of the international coalition."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2023/07/31 00:01

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) on Wednesday announced a general emergency (Photo: AANES).

Syria AANES Turkish drone strikes SDF Amude Hasakah TSK

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Sunday, the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) strongly condemned the escalation of Turkish drone strikes during the past week, as well as the silence of the ceasefire guarantor states.

"We firmly reject the ongoing perpetration of these crimes, and we condemn the silence of the international coalition and the forces responsible for upholding the cease-fire. We hold these parties accountable for allowing the Turkish attacks to persist,” the AANES said in a statement.

Despite the separate ceasefire agreements between Turkey and Russia, and Turkey and the United States, which were implemented in October 2019 to halt fighting between Turkey and the SDF, Turkish drone and artillery attacks persist in northeast Syria.

Moreover, there have been constant clashes between pro-Turkish Syrian National Army (SNA) fighters and the SDF.

This week, Turkey intensified its drone strikes and conducted another drone strike in the city of Til Rifaat in northern Aleppo on Sunday. The city is home to thousands of Kurdish people who were displaced during Turkey's military operation in Afrin back in March 2018.

According to data from the UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Turkey carried out 30 drone strikes since early 2023, which left 49 fatalities.

Moreover, SOHR reported that three civilians were injured on Sunday due to the artillery shelling on Tel Al-Laban Village near Tal Tamr in the Hasakah province.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Sunday also denied a claim by the Turkish Defense Ministry that 12 SDF fighters were killed in a Turkish attack.

Meghan Bodette, director of research at the Kurdish Peace Institute in Washington DC, told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday that “Turkey’s campaign of extrajudicial assassinations of AANES and SDF personnel weakens governance and security in the region and terrorizes civilian populations.”

“The minimal US response incentivizes Turkey to continue these destabilizing attacks and harms perceptions of the U.S. and the Coalition in northeast Syria—benefitting ISIS and the Syrian government, both of which want to see the SDF and the Coalition weakened.”

She added that the only way for the US to put a permanent stop to these strikes and other “destabilizing Turkish actions in Syria” is to push all sides to return to the negotiating table to solve Turkey’s Kurdish conflict by peaceful means.

“The Biden administration’s approach to this issue has been better than that of its predecessors, but they can and must do more to prioritize the issue before the next inevitable crisis in northeast Syria,” she concluded.