AK collective: Turkish president Erdogan says he is fighting against “terrorists”.

EA: The Turkish state says that the army forces that make up the YPG [People's Defense Units] and YPJ [Women's Defense Units] forming part of the SDF, and that have defended Kobane, Hesêke (Al-Hasakah) and the land around Aleppo from ISIS for the last five years – are terrorists and that they threaten the Turkish state.

That is a lie. They didn’t attack Turkey even once before the invasion. The defence forces of North East Syria did what was agreed [between SDF, Turkey and the US at beginning of August 2019] to provide a “security” mechanism along the Turkish-Syrian border. For Turkey that was not enough, because their plan is to control this area and to keep making demographic changes in the region, as they did in Afrîn.

The Turkish army attacked Afrîn [the westernmost canton of Rojava/Northeast Syria] in January 2018, backed by Russia, which gave the green light to Turkey. It was a similar situation. Despite heavy SDF resistance, the Turkish army alongside the jihadists occupied this area. When the Turkish army approached Afrin city, the SDF retreated in order to prevent a dreadful massacre. The invasion still led to the death of 300 civilians and 1,000 defenders of Afrîn. In the following period almost all Kurds left Afrîn – and that demographic change was completed when Turkey brought jihadist fighters and their families there. Now the same thing is happening in the occupied parts of North East Syria. As we speak, they are attacking this region with bombs.

AK collective: What was the role of the US in this Turkish invasion?

EA: On October 7 they retreated from military positions in Serekaniye and Tel Abyad (Kurdish: Grî Spî) directly on the border with Turkey. In both places, the Turkish army and proxies are now attacking. There are not many US soldiers in North East Syria, but they control the air so [by withdrawing] the US gave Turkey the opportunity to attack us with aircraft. They gave a green light to the dictator.

We can’t ignore the fact that Turkish state policy, not confined to only the current government, is deeply racist and also Islamist. People in Turkey criticising the invasion are under heavy attack. Nationalists and Islamists in Turkey are fearful of the Kurds because of the direct democracy processes they promote, and the political perspectives that Kurds share with other democratic opposition forces in Turkey and Syria. Many speak about betrayal because after the Kurds fought against Islamic State with US support, Trump opened the way for Turkey’s ethnic cleansing there.