UN’s Guterres & US Gen. Milley visit embattled Kurdistan
Swami August envisions a new nation in the Middle East (behind the Green Door)
The presence of top US and UN officials on unrelated trips to Kurdistan last week sharpens the world’s focus on this pivotally important region. None other than Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Baghdad and Kurdish Iraq and then …
The highest guy in the entire US military Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a surprise visit to Rojava, Northeast Syria last Saturday and by doing so insulted the Syrian Foreign Ministry who called his visit “a flagrant violation” of Syria’s sovereign integrity, as though Syria had sovereign integrity when it comes to the country’s northeast or northwest.
Turkey was quick to agree with Syria. On Sunday Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed their dissatisfaction with Milley’s trip. Note, Milley did not visit Turkey, but Turkey still has the audacity to summon US Ambassador Jeff Flake and spill their grief on him.
Turkey considers the Syrian Democratic Forces a terrorist organization, when it is Turkey doing the terrorizing. The SDF released a report of Turkish attacks on northern Syria last month. Two drone strikes, 24 attacks with tanks and other heavy weapons, 4 civilian dead and numerous injuries. And remember the SDF is partnering with the same US military Milley was visiting.
Al-Monitor’s Jared Szuba believes, “The arrival of Washington’s top general to Syria signals the Biden administration’s seriousness about keeping troops in the country in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).” Read our Archive on SDF.
This is music to my ears. Other information that came from Big Mike’s visit are also tuneful. Last month US, SDF and others local forces conducted 15 operations together. CENTCOM said the operations resulted in five ISIS deaths and 11 detained. Those detained will likely join the, according to CENTCOM , 60,000 ISIS-related detainees at al-Hol.
The camp was another place Milley visited on his whirlwind round. There are an estimated 25,000 children at al-Hol, and US Central Command’s Gen. Erik Kurilla considers those children as “prime targets for ISIS radicalization.” As leader of the US’s detainee repatriation operation, he has visited the camp three times since last April.
Al-Monitor’s Szuba wonders at the absence of international justice on this issue. He wrote, “Nearly four years after the IS defeat on the battlefield, some 10,000 suspected fighters from the group remain in makeshift prisons under SDF control, with not even a hint of international political will to establish war crimes tribunals on the horizon.”
This is the first I’m hearing about even the possibility of a war crimes tribunal. If one is to come, let it cut on all sides, that is find war crimes where they exist or existed no matter the flag on the uniform.
The official reason for Gen. Milley’s visit was to meet with some of the 900 US troops deployed there and to inspect “force protection measures,” according to Col. Dave Butler, Milley’s media mouthpiece. The symbolic reason is to tell Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran, “Don’t tread on me!”
As we’ve reported, these troops at Green Village came under rocket attack a few weeks ago. The rocket attack on the US base was either from Turkish terrorists or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp from Iran. Either way, the US is preparing to respond.
According to CENTCOM releases, two rockets landed near the base. While no one was hurt and no damage was done, I’d say the Milley appearance Saturday was a direct result of that attack. The top gun on the ground means the US military now has Rojava on its radar and it tells Turkey that they better rein in their proxies.
Speaking for myself, a skirmish between the United States and Turkey even through their proxies would be kinda welcome. A major break with the US now would hurt Erdogan’s election chances. Remember, the Turkish election is in May and President Erdogan is already wobbly because of his government’s role in the recent earthquake.
According to the Washington Kurdish institute, “As of March 6, February’s earthquakes have killed 45,089 people in Turkey” alone. The Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation estimates the immediate damage from the quakes in Turkey to be $84.1 billion, or about eight percent of Turkey’s GDP.
The earthquake is and was immediately after it happened, a political football. The Turkish pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party opposes Erdogan’s ruling coalition They have formally requested a parliamentary survey of “the administrative, institutional, political and legal responsibilities” of Erdogan’s government in the face of the humanitarian disaster.
Like Gen. Milley, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also visited the Kurdish Region, but this time in northern Iraq. Guterres visited with Kurdish officials in Erbil. With a population of 1.6 million, Erbil is the most populous city in Kurdish Northern Iraq. Human settlement there dates back over 7,000 years.
In his role as peacemaker, the secretary-general had visited Baghdad, the capital of Iraq on the first part of his Middle Eastern trip. Unlike its neighbors Turkey, Syria and Iran, Iraq welcomes the presence of the US military in its part of Kurdistan.
The president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region, Nechirvan Barzani, said they talked about “the latest political developments in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.” He mentioned some ‘existing differences” but didn’t say what they were. He did say “the status of Sinjar District” was “highlighted.”
The Sinjar District is the mountainous area in the north, the last homeland of the ancient Yazidis. It is Kurdistan by any generous reckoning and seemingly these discussions were about its future either as part of Iraq or another arrangement, probably something like the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) aka Rojava, now has with Syria. With United Nations support an Iraqi/Kurdistan agreement would come about peacefully, unlike the situation in Syria which is anything but peaceful.
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