Vermonter has hand in Syrian war

April McCullum | Free Press Staff Writer

Former Vermont Sen. Peter Galbraith, who visited Syria last week, finds the ongoing debate about Syrian refugees “slightly odd.”

Some U.S. politicians, concerned about terrorism, have called for restrictions on refugees seeking to enter this country.

“Many of the people who are fleeing Syria are groups that are targeted for extermination by the Islamic State,” Galbraith said in a recent interview from his home in Townshend. “Nothing’s impossible, but it’s extremely unlikely that any terrorist would come in as a refugee because it takes two or three years, and the vetting is very hard here.”

The former diplomat is trying to build a political solution to the messy civil war in Syria, which has forced approximately 4 million people out of the country as refugees.

He traveled to Syria last week and in October, working with the Kurdish minority on behalf of a small British organization he declined to name.

Galbraith's close relationships with Kurdish groups have been controversial in the past, when he simultaneously engaged in business and political dealings in Iraq and later reaped millions of dollars in oil profits from Kurd-controlled areas.

Galbraith has denied any conflict of interest from the work in Iraq, and said he closed down business in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2008.

He said he has no business ties to the Kurds among whom he works in Syria.

“I’m sure I’ve had a longer association with the Kurds than almost any other American, and relationship,” Galbraith said, “so I’m in a position where I can be helpful.”

Najmaldin Karim, a Kurdish leader and governor of the Iraqi province of Kirkuk, agreed with Galbraith’s assessment.

“Sometimes a person goes one time or something, but certainly nobody has been involved like Peter has been involved,” Karim said in a telephone interview from London. Galbraith and Karim, who formerly worked as a doctor in the United States, have developed a friendship over Kurdish issues.

Galbraith emphasizes that he is working as a private citizen among minorities in Syria, not as a representative of the U.S. government.

“I don’t speak for the Obama administration, I’m not carrying any messages,” Galbraith said. “On the other hand, they know who I am and they know that I know lots of people in the administration.”

Galbraith, the son of economist John Kenneth Galbraith, has worked for the United Nations and served as an ambassador in Croatia.

“I’ve spent a long career as a negotiator on war and peace issues, and to be honest, there aren’t many people who have done that,” Galbraith said.

Not like Vermont

Work in Syria pulled Galbraith away from the Vermont Senate last year.

“In recent months, I have become increasingly involved in an informal effort aimed at finding a political solution to Syria’s civil war, working with Syria’s Kurdish and Christian minorities to help them develop strategies to best protect their communities,” Galbraith said in the June 2014 statement announcing he would not seek re-election. “Reluctantly, I have concluded I cannot do this and still devote the necessary time to work in Montpelier.”

Galbraith is known in Vermont politics for being outspoken and talkative at the Statehouse, and for sometimes stepping out alone on policy. He’s flirting with a gubernatorial bid in the 2016 Democratic primary, but says an official decision remains months away.

As he weighs his political future in the Green Mountain State, Galbraith shuttles between front lines in Syria and the peace of southern Vermont.

“Vermont was always the place that I came back to,” Galbraith said. “It was always the place in my heart and the place when things were difficult that I thought about.”

“There is the contrast, but there’s no cognitive dissonance because I’ve been doing this for a very long time,” Galbraith added.

Quiet work

Peace talks are scheduled to begin early next year between opposition factions and the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Galbraith says he’s acting as an unpaid adviser to Syria’s minority groups with those peace talks in mind.

“It’s quiet work,” Galbraith said.

His work has nevertheless attracted some unwanted attention from the Syrian government. Last December, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations complained that Galbraith entered Syria without a visa, according to Reuters.

Syria also complained that visits by Galbraith, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were a “blatant violation of Syria's sovereignty.”

Galbraith said he has been able to enter Syria without issue because he enters through the border with Iraq in Kurdish-controlled territory.

He has spent much of his time in Qamishli, the largest city in the Kurdish region of Syria, in the northeastern corner of the country. Galbraith conducts his work in English and relies on interpreters.

Kurds are fighting the Islamic State group, which surrounds their territory.

“There’s very little sign directly of the fighting” away from the front lines, Galbraith said, “but what you experience is an incredibly lower standard of living.”

Galbraith said he arrived in December 2014 to find Qamishli completely veiled in darkness because the Islamic State had seized power plants and disrupted power lines.

The situation had improved somewhat by October of this year, Galbraith said, and he was working in areas where electricity was available a few hours per day.

The former diplomat has spent much of his time helping Kurds to outline their goals in the upcoming negotiations, and has worked with Saleh Muslim, president of the Syrian Kurdish party PYD.

He said he has also met representatives of other Syrian minority groups outside Syria.

Galbraith wants to see Kurds and other minorities represented in the Syrian government, with a high level of autonomy for Kurdish areas, and for the country’s ethnic and religious diversity to be preserved.

He describes visiting the front lines, which he said was peaceful, and meeting members of the Yazidi religious minority at a refugee camp in Iraq, where he said young children were happy but everyone older than age 9 carried depression in their eyes.

“In the end, the war in Syria’s going to need to have a political solution, and that means a compromise,” Galbraith said. “You know there can’t be a compromise with the Islamic State, so it means a compromise among the others.”

Contact April Burbank at 802-660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/AprilBurbank