Syrian Kurds Urge UN Action to Prevent Turkish Invasion

Seek to Make All of Syrian Kurdistan a Safe Zone

Facing repeated threats by the Turkish government to invade the Afrin District in Northern Syria, the Kurdish YPG’s political wing, the PYD, has issued a statement urging the UN to take immediate action to prevent the attack.

The PYD warned that Afrin would not face the invasion alone, and that all of northern and eastern Syria would stand with them in resisting Turkey. They suggested that the UN declare all Syrian Kurdish territory as a “safe zone” to exempt them from attacks.

That’s highly unlikely, as the safe zones were negotiated largely by Russia, Turkey, and Iran. Turkey would clearly never allow a Kurdish safe zone, and insisting the YPG are terrorists, wouldn’t respect such a zone as applying to them even if it was established, as similarly ISIS and al-Qaeda safe zones haven’t been.

Turkey has repeatedly threatened such attacks against Afrin, a Kurdish region not linked to the rest of their territory, and President Erdogan has suggested Turkey would seek to run the YPG out of all border regions, which is materially all of Syrian Kurdistan.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.