The Daily Anguish of Syrians

In Syria, the Kurds make up an ethnic minority, around ten percent of the population. These Kurds can be divided into two sections: those who have lived in Syria historically and they are part of the mosaic of Syria and have completely integrated into Syrian fabric (Syria has had two presidents and a prime minister who were ok Kurdish descent). The second section constitutes the Kurds who fled massacres from adjacent Turkey and settled in Syria.

Both Turkey and Iraq, were responsible for the settlement of many Kurds in Syria. In the 1930’s Turkey carried out numerous massacres against the Kurds, killing many of them and forcing the survivors to flee.

Flee they did, into Syria. Syria has always acted as a sanctuary to many ethnicities – opening its gates to them and granting them a safe haven.

The Kurds were one of these ethnicities. The Kurds who fled into Syria in 1930’s due to the Turkish massacres and later on those fled from Iraq, were treated more as “in transit” Kurds. Syria hosted them temporarily with the aim that they would return to their homeland once issues were resolved. Some of these Kurds did return back whether to Turkey or Iraq, but some remained in Syria. It is those very same Kurds who are now playing a negative role in the Syria crisis, dividing the region and stealing Syrian oil and wheat.

Reneva Fourie is a South African political analyst living in Syria. Recently she was an a trip to Lattakia a coastal city in Syria. Below are some of her thoughts when travelling through Syria.

Öcalan’s PKK cause millions of Syrians daily anguish

By: Reneva Fourie

The people of Syria have faced a military onslaught and survived. They are battling an economic onslaught due to the USA’s illegal sanctions, but they will survive. What they should not be facing is their fellow-countrymen  in the form of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also known as the Quwwāt Sūriyā al- Dīmuqrāṭīya (QSD) colluding with the USA to deprive them of fuel.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)founded in 1978, and its military wing Yekîneyên  Parastina Gel‎ (YPG) has fought a long and protracted battle against persecution by Turkey. People of Kurdish descent have been subjected to gross human rights violations; denial of linguistic, cultural, and political rights; and economic subjugation by successive Turkish regimes particularly since 1980. PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan was kidnapped in Kenya in 1999 and is now languishing in isolation in a Turkish island prison, Imrali island, which is no different to Robben Island. That he needs to be released and that the persecution of persons of Kurdish descent should be stopped, cannot be disputed.

Historically, people of Kurdish descent had been geographically located in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. In Syria, a secular state, persons of Kurdish descent have always enjoyed the same rights as all other Syrian citizens including linguistic and cultural rights. Syrians do not discern between religion or background. All is welcome and all is respected. It is this very Syrian hospitality that welcomed Ocalan for most of his leadership period and it is Syria that provided the PKK with sanctuary.

Sadly, the people of Syria were betrayed. At the onset of the western destabilization campaign against the Syrian government , a group of persons aligned to the PKK collaborated with the USA to form the Syrian Democratic Forces. While initial engagements were targeted at fighting Isis, the SDF is now so entangled in the western regime change agenda, that their actions are advancing the interests of these very insurgents and worse, it is advancing the interest of its primary oppressor, Turkey.

The SDFs current activities in Syria is strongly tarnishing the valiant image of Abdullah Öcalan, their equivalent of Nelson Mandela. The SDF is associated with the kidnappings of their fellow Syrian civilians and the aiding of USA troops in the theft of wheat. The current action however, which is hurting the people of Syria most, is not just the theft of Syrian oil in collaboration with the USA, but the total blocking of any access to it.

The Syrian economy is slowly grinding to a halt. Sanctions, intensified by the USAs 2020 Caesar Act has blocked external trade with Syria. It is the lack of fuel however, which is proving to be even more devastating. Syrians access the petrol stations as early as 4am to stand in long queues for up to seven hours at a time to purchase their 20 litres of petrol per week ration. The refineries of this oil rich  and extremely beautiful country have ground to a halt. Electricity now is accessed sparingly and consequently the internet is unstable.

This unnecessary suffering, while being largely due to the USA, would not at all have been possible, without the complicity of the SDF.  They have invited the USA into Syria. They are the ones protecting the USA here in Syria. And they are the ones controlling the oil that the USA is stealing.

How low a once noble cause has stooped. Whoever would have expected the PKK to be associated with the destruction of an entire country and its proud people, including those of Kurdish descent.? They have forsaken their anti-imperialist stance, as the USA imperialists are now their pay masters. Their human rights legacy has been destroyed as they now become the enablers of abuse in Syria. All progressives hang their heads in shame as we witness how the SDF cause millions of Syrians daily anguish.

Editor In Chief

Reem Haddad