Russia should not pave the way for new disasters against the Kurdish people. We have reasons to say this. Because we saw what happened in Afrin. Back then, Russia agreed with Erdogan and withdrew its forces, opening the airspace to Turkish strikes. Turkey did not restrict its occupation to Afrin. The Turkish occupation brought a real disaster to the Kurds. Turkey carried out an ethnic cleansing in Afrin. The historical settlements of the Kurds have been ruined. The looting and crimes against humanity continue to be committed.

While the Turkish state was committing such serious crimes against humanity, Russia did not make any statement. It did not release a statement to condemn it. Russia turned a blind eye to all the crimes committed. Meanwhile, the Russian administration invited a large delegation from North and East Syria to Sochi in 2018. One day before the summit, Russia came to an agreement with the Turkish state and ostracized the autonomous regions from the negotiation talks. Russia continued to cooperate with the fascist Erdogan, who invaded Syria and organized military forces against the Damascus government. Afterwards, the Astana process started. The Astana talks helped to legitimize the Turkish invasion of Syria. ‘We support the political unity and territorial integrity of Syria,’ Iran, Russia and Turkey said in their joint statements.

Against whom do they support the political unity and territorial integrity of Syria? Against the Kurds and the peoples of North and East Syria, of course! The people living in these lands are citizens of Syria. They did not come from outside and invade Syria like Turkey did. Moreover, they made the greatest sacrifices for the territorial integrity of Syria and yielded more than ten thousand martyrs to do so. They also lent the biggest support to the Assad administration not to fall. Let's imagine that North and East Syria is controlled by ISIS. Could the Damascus government survive in that case? It was the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that removed ISIS from these areas. If Russia and Iran did not intervene in the war and provide support, the Assad administration would not have survived. In the meantime, Turkey opened its borders to organizations such as ISIS and Al Nusra from the very beginning. Turkey played the biggest role in dragging Syria into a bloody deadlock. Yet, Turkey allegedly respects Syria's territorial integrity!

If Turkey respects Syria's territorial integrity, why doesn't it withdraw its army and end the occupation? Turkish officials keep saying that ‘we smashed the terror corridor in the Kurdish regions. We will also clear the areas from Afrin to Derik and will relocate millions of refugees living in Turkey into these places.’ What kind of respect is it? Turkey is occupying the lands of another country, organizing population movements and the Syrian National Army, which has hundreds of thousands of fighters against the official army, and yet it keeps saying that it respects Syria’s sovereignty.

Turkey does not discuss Idlib at all. It is trying to leave the situation in Idlib off the agenda. Al-Nusra and similar organizations have maintained their power there for years. They have tens of thousands of armed forces. All countries label these forces as terrorist organizations. However, the Kurds are the main problem for Turkey! They are terrorists and must be destroyed! At a time when the whole world is saying that the war in Syria should be ended and a political solution should be found, Erdogan wants to escalate tensions further. Yet, the Russian administration is negotiating with this occupying fascist administration which is preparing disasters for the Kurds.

Before the Tehran summit, various political circles were making evaluations. There were some saying that an agreement had been reached with Russia for a possible Turkish invasion of Rojava, but a decision would be concluded after a meeting with Iran. It seems that Iran did not give a green light to an open invasion because Turkey does not leave the areas it has occupied. It prepares and organizes armed groups, including the groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a clear threat to the Damascus administration and Iran. But they would not have much objection to the acts of striking and weakening the Kurds. Turkey was not satisfied with this and went to Sochi on August 5 to convince Putin. Negotiations over the Kurds and autonomous regions continued to take place over there, too. And it seems that the killings of the SDF commanders and the regional leaders were approved in Sochi. Because after the Tehran and Sochi talks, Turkey's drone attacks have increased.

There has been no objection or statement from Iran or Russia against Turkish attacks. Turkey cannot carry out such attacks if there is no approval and support from other countries, because the Syrian army has been positioned along the borders of Turkey. Russia is patrolling there, too. Syria’s airspace is controlled by Russia.

Let us express this fact once again here: the most cruel and unjust thing in the world is when the fate of a people is negotiated by its enemies and others. Unfortunately, these negotiations are taking place to the detriment of the Kurds. Before these talks, Russia did not ask the Kurds about their opinion. It did not share any information about the outcome of the talks. We witnessed the same indifference at the NATO summit. Erdogan troubled himself with Rojava and the Kurds at the NATO summit. He imposed conditions for the NATO bid of Sweden and Finland, none of which tried to give an explanation to the Kurds. The NATO Secretary General made statements as if he were Erdogan's spokesperson.

Russia should stop making fascist Erdogan a problem for peoples. Erdogan has huge problems in his country. Turkey has been carrying out heavy attacks on guerrilla forces in Iraq for a long time. But due to the guerrilla resistance, Turkish attacks yielded no results. Erdogan wants to go to the elections inciting nationalist sentiments. Therefore, he needs a war, a victory, albeit a fake one. The Russian administration needs to abandon the policies that will help aggressive Erdogan to maintain his power.

Erdogan wants to destroy the Kurds. In this respect, we urge Russia not to be a partner to disastrous scenarios against the Kurds. The main issue that Iran and Russia should discuss with Erdogan is when Turkey will withdraw its army and end the occupation. In a curious way, Turkey never talks about when it will end the occupation and withdraw its army. Syria's political unity and territorial integrity is possible through North and East Syria cooperating with the Damascus administration and putting an end to the occupation. Powers like Russia should give priority to this issue.

Source: Ronahi newspaper