Europe’s debt to the Kurds
Every loss of US life is a tragedy. And as #Syria policy is under discussion, a look at the cemeteries filled with those Syrians in the US-backed partner force who gave their young lives to the fight against ISIS. pic.twitter.com/kkz5twLkMJ— Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (@gaylelemmon) 20 Δεκεμβρίου 2018
Savvas Kalenteridis
Although there is unconfirmed information that the so-called
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was created by Western secret
services to serve as a threat and the reason for a military intervention in
Iraq and Syria to “restore order and consolidate security”, it is important to
look at the evolution of this phenomenon.
Initially this organization was formed in 2003 in Iraq under the
name Al-Qaeda in Iraq, during the US military operation to overturn Saddam
Hussein, by various Sunni militant groups such as Mücahidîn Şûra, Jaysh
el-Fatiheen, Jund el-Sahaba, Katbiyan Ansar el-Tevhid vel Sunnah, Jeish
el-Taiifa el-Mansoura etc. Its leader was a doctor of Islamic Studies at the
University of Baghdad named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who claimed direct descendancy
from the Prophet Muhammad. On 2 February 2004, al-Baghdadi was arrested by the
US military authorities and was held in Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca prison until
December 2004.
All these years the aforementioned Islamist groups had set up the
Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) under the leadership of Abu Ayyub al-Masri with
al-Baghdadi succeeding him after al-Masri was killed in 2010.
Following Osama bin Laden’s killing by members of the US special
forces on 2 May 2011, al-Baghdadi released a harsh statement against the
"assassins" promising retaliation. After three days there was an
attack in Hilla that killed 24 policemen and wounded 72 others. Al-Baghdadi
claimed responsibility for this attack in the name of ISI while he had already
claimed responsibility for 23 other attacks that took place in March and April
of the same year.
ISI claimed responsibility for an attack in Mosul on 15 August
2011 that resulted in 70 deaths and also claimed on its website to have carried
out 100 attacks as retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden. On 22 December
2011, after the withdrawal of the US armed forces from Iraq, a series of
concerted suicide attacks were carried out in Baghdad that killed 63 people and
wounded 180 others.
Meanwhile in Syria, since the spring of the same year protests had
started that were transformed in June into an armed uprising with the
participation of al-Nusra, a branch of al-Qaeda in Syria.
It is then that al-Baghdadi decided to extend in Syria the action
of his organization which became known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
In 2013, ISIS had already acquired great power by controlling
large areas in Iraq and Syria, and al-Baghdadi announced the incorporation of
al-Nusra into his organization. The leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri,
reacted and released a statement calling ISIS to stop its action in Syria.
However, al-Baghdadi took no account of al-Zawahiri’s statement and recruited
80% of Al-Nusra’s members.
In January 2014, ISIS seized Raqqa, which became the capital of
the "State", and chased out al-Nusra’s fighters who remained loyal to
al-Zawahiri. In February 2014, al-Qaeda announced breaking relations with the
Islamic State.
On 10 June, ISIS seized Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, where
in addition to the $450 million found in the treasury of the Central Bank
of Iraq, ISIS captured brand-new US weapons of an Iraqi army corps which
abandoned the city without fight.
ISIS has become now powerful holding over ⅓ of Iraq and Syria,
while the regular armies of both countries lose all the battles with the
jihadists and flee.
On 29 June, ISIS announced the restoration of the Caliphate and
al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself de jure Caliph as a descendant of Prophet
Muhammad. The name of the state changed to Islamic State (IS).
On 5 July 2014, a video was posted showing al-Baghdadi preaching
in a mosque.
By this time, IS had already acquired great power having under its
control areas larger than Greece that included about 15 million “citizens” –
Sunnis in their vast majority.
It is of interest that IS had propaganda mechanisms sowing terror
in the West and causing the admiration of extreme Islamists around the world
who rushed through Turkey to become loyal soldiers of the Caliphate.
According to a report published in August 2014 by the Human Rights
Watch in Syria, IS had 50.000 fighters in Syria and 30.000 in Iraq, while at
the same period CIA reported 20.000–30.000 fighters.
We are not in the position to know if the Western secret services
indeed contributed to the creation of IS, at least in the initial stages.
Undoubtedly, however, in August 2014 the IS phenomenon reached such
proportions, that the West and especially Europe were ravaged by terror.
In May 2015, IS seized Palmyra and reached – given the nature of
the ground – Damascus. There was the risk to occupy the Mediterranean coast of
Syria, conquer Lebanon within a few days and Jordan, and then to control an
area larger than France, with a population of about 40 million and rich
resources.
It should be noted that during all these years IS was exploiting
the oil wells in its "territory" and was selling oil to the Erdogan
family, even to the Syrian state.
The situation was about to become out of control. In that critical
phase a combative people able to destroy this major threat for the security of
Europe and the whole world should be found. Syrian Kurds undertook this heavy
duty gaining the first strategic victory over IS in Kobanî with air support
from the USA.
That was it. The US had found the most effective and reliable
partner in the region – Erdogan’s Turkey was the most reliable partner of IS –
and thus gradually started the dismantlement of ISIS in northern Syria with
Russia supporting Syrian army operations west of the Euphrates.
Today ISIS is on its last legs, but for this Kurds have sacrificed
10.000 young men and women in addition to the thousands of wounded, in order
for us in Europe to feel safe from the decapitators of the Caliphate.
Europe should not forget that fact when flatters the killer of the
Kurds, Turkey, which was the biggest sponsor of IS.
This is our debt to the Kurds.
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