With a couple of weeks left to go, the Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan are looking to be one of the biggest efforts to end the war in months. The big question is how many factions will end up attending, with agreements not in place for an awful lot of Syrian rebel factions.
One thing you definitely won’t see in the Astana talks is any Kurds, however, as the PYD has confirmed that they are explicitly not invited, even though they and their military faction the YPG are both willing to take part if they were allowed to.
The reason behind this is that Turkey was involved in putting the talks together, and Turkey is bound and determined that no Kurdish factions be involved in the process, part of their effort to position the Kurdish factions as the equivalent of ISIS.
The YPG of course was also excluded from the ongoing Syrian ceasefire for the same reason, as Turkey is currently attacking ISIS and intends to attack the YPG-held city of Manbij next, meaning the Turkish government wants to ensure the ceasefire does not in any way threaten their ongoing military offensive.
The Kurds are like the Arabs that live in Israel . They do not have a country The Kurds are the largest ethnic group that have no country . Seems to me I heard of a country called Kurdstan .or maybe it just was a dream . Kurds live in 4 countries I know of Iraq Turkey Syria and Iran .Kurds have slightly different religion of Islam and were persecuted in both Iraq and Turkey .. In Syria and Iraq the Kurds did protect Christians and other minorities fighting against ISIS .I have always wished the Kurds good luck but they always seem to be the first people left out of any decision making position that are bound to effect their right to self determination
Kurds are excluded not just because Turkey is involved, but because the US is not, and because the Kurds are a target for all parties who are involved.
Targeting Kurds is one of the few things on which they have starting agreement.
That is partly because the Kurds are the US tool, and their involvement would be US involvement.
However, it also exposes the fundamental incompetence of the US position. The Kurds are willing to deal with us, and oppose Iran. However, they also oppose any Iraqi government we can create, and have done terrorism in Turkey for decades. They are at war with all sides, except the US, which is at war with all sides except Kurds.
No wonder they are losing, both the Kurds and the US. No focus. No concentration of effort.
Please be a bit more open minded and understand that decades before any Kurds committed a single act of “terrorism” in Turkey that the Turkish state had been massacring innocent men women and children in their own homes. I agree we as Kurds shouldn’t be committing these sort of things but at the same time we are fighting fascist regimes of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. We are fighting all of our neighbors because all of our neighbors are exactly the same and even worse that ISIS. The US is doing the right thing in supporting us as we are the only ones who respect women and minorities. We protect the vulnerable with our own lives and our heroes are among the bravest of history.
Oct 16, 2016 ‘Why do they bomb us?’ Children killed in recent rebel shelling in Aleppo
Rebels in the Syrian city of Aleppo shell government-controlled areas. RT’s correspondent Murad Gazdiev spoke with survivors as rescuers dug through rubble to recover the body of a 13-year-old girl.
https://youtu.be/zK9s7LKhnbU