“There have been attacks by ISIS in Europe and it’s because of the sacrifices our people have made that the West has felt more safe,” says Donus Sarican, a Kurdish student in London. “Now it’s our people being massacred, it’s like everybody is suddenly quiet.”
It has only been five days since Donald Trump revealed his shock decision to pull US troops out of north-east Syria, but Turkey has already launched an offensive against Kurdish fighters, shelling towns in the region and bombing targets from the air.
The Kurds were key allies to the US during a five-year fight against Islamic State in Syria, with Kurdish forces losing around 11,000 fighters.
Buy for many – including some in his own party – Trump’s decision to remove troops from the border was essentially a green light to Turkey’s leader Recep Erdogan plans to attack the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which he considers a terrorist group.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 23 SDF fighters with have already been killed in the attack, as well as eight civilians. Meanwhile, more than 60,000 people are thought to have fled their homes.
Erdogan reportedly plans to clear Kurdish militia from north-east Syria in order to house some of Turkey’s 3.6 million Syrian refugees.
In London, despite being more than 2,000 miles away, the Kurdish community is watching the situation unfold in fear – and anger.
“I think it’s ridiculous what Trump is doing,” SOAS economics student Donus tells HuffPost UK.
The president told Kurdish forces he wanted to fight ISIS – their common enemy – together in Syria, she says. “But now his job is done, he wants to open the door to a dictator and say: “Here, do your genocide.’”
Donus continues: “All the sacrifices that have been made economically, people have lost their lives, people have lost family members and he [Trump] has just taken a big step back and is betraying the people he had a partnership with.”
The 21-year-old adds: “We have had close friends that went to fight ISIS and lost their lives from Britain. It’s like disregarding the ultimate sacrifice they have made.”
“We are all extremely worried because it’s a major threat,” says Zeynep Kurban, a Kurdish physicist living in London. “It’s not just a rogue organisation that’s attacking us. This is an attack that could be a very big blow to the achievements of Kurdish people in the region.
“It wouldn’t just undo everything and all the sacrifices we’ve made, but it could really weaken the Kurds historically for a very long time. If Turkey does achieve what it plans to achieve, it could be a genocide.”
For Elif Sarican, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics, it’s a “scary time”.
“It feels in some ways that this will be a turning point,” she says. “It feels like an all-or-nothing situation. There are quite strong feelings around what this phase means for the Kurdish community, because this person [Erdogan] is out to massacre Kurdish people en masse.”
The world has already seen what happens when Turkey attacks Kurdish forces, the Kurdish women’s movement activist says.
In January 2018, Turkey launched an attack on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in western Syria. Human rights groups reported the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the displacement of thousands of people during the offensive.
“There’s a track record,” Elif says. “That’s why people are very angry and very scared – we know what will happen.”
But Asiti, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, believes Turkey’s offensive could put people at risk outside of Syria too.
“This is going to lead to Turkey invading northern Syria and the Kurds are just going to be slaughtered,” he says. “At the same time, Kurds are going to move their focus away from ISIS and onto this invasion.
“This is going to lead to the possible breakout of all these ISIS prisoners reforming and unleashing another terrorist attack across Europe, across Britain, across America.”
