A protest in Berlin against the Turkish invasion of northeast Syria. Supporters of Kurds around the world have rallied to stop the assault on Rojava (Credit: Reuters)
By Gabriel Caligiuri
When Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States almost three years ago, many of us within FAI were apprehensive. Trump had promised to eradicate ISIS and rescind the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA), but his dubious comments about key alliances and his lack of experience with policy-making made it difficult to know what to expect. However, we were willing to favor uncertainty over the proven, destructive track record of Trump’s predecessor and his opponent in the general election, both of whom had enabled much of the chaos and tragedy that we have witnessed first-hand in the Middle East, including the rise of ISIS itself. Therefore, our apprehension was not without a hopeful optimism.
That optimism was almost immediately rewarded in spades. Less than 90 days after taking office, President Trump responded to the Syrian regime’s use of nerve agents against civilians in Khan Shaykhun with a volley of Tomahawk missiles, nearly obliterating the air base from which the attack originated, and making a significant impact on Syrian air power. Having witnessed the war crimes of the Assad regime with our own eyes while treating hundreds of his non-combatant victims inside Syria, we were relieved to see the President taking bold but measured action against such a brutal regime.
When President Trump empowered the Pentagon with additional funding and relaxed rules of engagement to pursue ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, we stood at the front lines and watched as the Caliphate was completely dismantled in just over a year. Having lived and labored in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2015, ministering directly to ISIS refugees, providing life-saving training and treatment to the Kurdish Peshmerga, and attending the funerals of their fallen heroes almost every week, we heartily applauded President Trump’s leadership in this decisive victory.
When the President recognized Jerusalem as the rightful capital of the State of Israel in December 2017, we gave a hearty “amen,” and we celebrated at the new US embassy in Jerusalem with his faith delegates and other supporters. When the President vacated the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, we rejoiced, knowing all-to-well the threat that the regime in Tehran poses to both the region at-large as well as its own people. And in March 2019, when the President signed the proclamation that the Golan Heights - our headquarters in the Middle East - was to be recognized as the possession of Israel, we were ecstatic. Never in our wildest dreams did we anticipate such a gift. For all of these things we were, and still are, immensely grateful.
However, our gratitude for the good should not whitewash the reality of the bad, and there is one area in which we believe President Trump’s judgment has been very bad: His policies towards our friends and neighbors, the Kurdish people.
In late 2017, after the recapture of Mosul from ISIS and the eradication of their caliphate in Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga was at its apex. It has successfully (and, in the early-going, single-handedly) staved off the ISIS campaign towards the oil-rich areas of Kirkuk and Tikrit. Peshmerga leadership cooperated with the US-led Coalition and its Iraqi counterparts in Baghdad during a massive, two-year-long counteroffensive. By September 2017, the Peshmerga had liberated the northern third of the Iraqi state and was in control of territory in Iraq that has a centuries-long legacy of Kurdish presence, including Kirkuk Governate and the Nineveh Plains. Kurdish optimism soared, and many perceived that, after a century of subjugation and atrocity, the time had finally come for Kurdish self-determination. They had certainly earned it, and the peaceful, pluralistic and tolerant Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had certainly proved that the Kurds could handle autonomy in a just and virtuous manner. On September 25th, the KRG held a referendum to gauge popular support for independence. The “yes” vote was 95%, and a mere three weeks later, Baghdad attacked. A combined force of Iraqi regular forces and Iranian-backed irregular units (collectively dubbed the “Popular Mobilization Units”, or PMU’s), attacked the Peshmerga, pushing them from the Nineveh Plains and Kirkuk Governate, where they had fought and died just months before in defense of all Iraqis. Many of the vehicles and much of the weaponry used to attack the Peshmerga was American-made.
The Trump administration had publicly opposed the referendum as a “distraction” and, when Baghdad attacked, the White House took a neutral stance, advising both sides to avoid escalation and mediate their differences. To Iraqi Kurds, the lack of US support was disappointing and baffling - inconsistent with a foreign policy that opposed Iranian expansionism. The campaign was also illegal, since according to Article 140 of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution, the final status of all disputed territories between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq proper were to be settled by a popular vote in those territories, not by force. The Iraqi government has consistently refused to schedule such a vote, and since October 2017, Kurdish residents around Kirkuk have been systematically terrorized by some of their Arab neighbors; forced out of their homes at gunpoint, their crops burnt, their heritage stolen.
The failure of the Trump Administration to seize the historic opportunity to shepherd Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence in September 2017, followed by its passivity during the PMU castigation the following month, was a stain on the administration’s foreign policy. The harm was real and consequential, but not irreparable. President Trump’s State Department and Defense Department were still working closely with the KRG, and as importantly, were partnering hand-in-glove with the Kurds across the border in Syria, where ISIS was still alive and well.
Before Donald Trump took office, the Obama Administration had several fits and starts with prospective anti-ISIS partners in Syria. The options west of the Euphrates River were the Assad regime itself, which by 2014 was an extension of the regime in Tehran, or the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), whose relationship with al-Qaeda was too cozy. An attempt to build a pro-Western anti-ISIS force from scratch was a colossal failure. Once again, the US-led Coalition found that Kurdish militias were the toughest, hardest-working and most resourceful ally. The story was similar to Iraq. After staving off ISIS in the Syrian town of Kobane in 2014, the Kurdish YPG militia banded together with like-minded Arab and Assyrian militias east of the Euphrates to form the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Together, with Coalition air, ground and logistical support, the SDF began to shrink the Caliphate. The region of Syrian Kurdistan in the Northeast organized into autonomous political cantons in 2015, creating a pluralistic governing council and adopting a secular, democratic constitution. Rojava, as it come to be known, was hailed internationally as a beacon of hope and progress in an otherwise dark and ugly civil war. A joint Coalition-SDF operation named “Wrath of Euphrates” reclaimed the ISIS capital of al-Raqqa in October 2016. After President Trump took office in January 2017, the anti-ISIS campaign was fast-tracked, and the final ISIS bastion of Baghuz fell to the SDF in March 2019. President Trump’s Department of Defense oversaw the launch of a Pentagon initiative to train 110,000 SDF troops in January 2018, signaling that the US relationship with the SDF would be long-term. If US policy had failed the Kurds of Iraq in 2017, it was rewarding the Kurds of Syria in 2018 and 2019. Our confidence was restored.
Even when the President announced the withdrawal of American troops from Syria in December 2018, before the ISIS caliphate was even defeated, we were relieved by his later clarification that the draw-down would be phased over time, and that it would be conditional. And even when the White House announced a joint operation with Turkey to create a “safe zone” in Northeast Syria, ostensibly to address Turkey’s “legitimate security concerns,” we tempered our concern with the hope that an American presence would prevent a repeat of the abuses against Kurdish civilians during the Turkish incursion in Afrin the year before. But it wouldn’t be long before our worst fears were realized.
The Kurdish YPG in Syria has been affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in Turkey for years. The PKK is a secular, Marxist insurgent movement whose stated goal is to compel the Turkish government to recognize the Kurdish right to self-determination through armed resistance. Their aspirations and tactics are comparable to the Irish Republican Army during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. That is, the PKK is not a legitimate armed force, nor are they monstrous jihadists. Their acts of violence against Turkish soldiers, police and and civilians are reprehensible and deserve strong condemnation, but they don’t approach the level of genocidal mania that has been perpetrated against the Kurdish people by their neighbors for over a century. Abdullah Öcalan is a founding member of the PKK, as well as its philosophical and political sage. Currently serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison, Öcalan is a folk hero throughout Greater Kurdistan for his role in Kurdish resistance. On the other hand, the PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department and the European Union, and is responsible for the murders of hundreds of innocent Turkish civilians. The dynamics of grievance and militancy in the Kurdish consciousness are complex and layered, not cut-and-dry. Whilst we cannot beatify the PKK, in view of a history replete with suffering, we cannot entirely vilify them either.
That being said, some things are clear. The YPG is not equivalent to the PKK. The SDF does not employ the tactics PKK, and neither the PKK nor the YPG have used Rojava as a staging ground to launch attacks on targets in Turkey. To anyone who works with or around Kurdish militias on the ground, these are apparent, indisputable facts. Turkish president Erdogan’s blanket claims that all Kurdish militias in Syria are terrorist organizations is simply untrue, and any repetition of these talking points by President Trump to equivocate the YPG/SDF with the PKK, or even worse, with ISIS, is tragically misinformed. Moreover, such comments from a chief patron and ally is deeply insulting and wounding to our Kurdish friends who have maintained unwavering integrity and loyalty to the United States over the last two decades.
When we read on October 6th that President Trump had spoken on the phone with President Erdogan and was going to withdraw US forces from the Syrian-Turkish border, we were devastated. We immediately understood the implications of such a decision. And as 14,000 pro-Turkish Syrian rebels mustered to fight with Turkish forces, reciting the Quranic calls to jihad against the infidels, we knew what was coming. And after a week of shelling, bombing and atrocities around Tel Abyad, Manbij and Ras al-Ain, with US forces ordered to disengage and to leave the country post-haste, the writing was on the wall. Once again, the Kurds had no friends but the mountains. They were forced to lay their autonomy on the altar of survival and pick between the lesser of two evils. They chose the Syrian regime, with it’s 50-year-history of Kurdish disenfranchisement, repression, and ethnic cleansing. And therefore, by proxy, they chose Iranian hegemony across their territory and the end of their democratic experiment. The SDF chose the Assad regime because, at that moment, the Iranians and Syrians weren’t the ones actively trying to kill them and force them from their homeland. And they made their choice with the full understanding that one day the tables will turn on them. Yet, for the Kurds, survival is a year-to-year, month-to-month, and sometimes day-to-day enterprise. To pass judgement on this alliance of necessity would be akin to passing judgment on the Allies for their alliance with Stalin’s Soviet Union during the Second World War. The threat of the day in the 1940s was genocidal fascists on two continents. Confrontation with the Soviets would have to wait. Likewise, the threat of the day for Kurds is Turkey, not Syria and Iran. But that reality will change. And in any case, after such a stunning reversal of policy at the whim of a dictator, the plank in our American eye is far too large to remove the speck from the eyes our Kurdish brethren.
So what can the global body of Christ, and specifically, the American churches do for the Kurdish people? If there was ever a time to speak and act, it is certainly now, but how?
First, we can be informed. On our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/faimission/) we have made available several hours of video content which explains the background and context of events on the ground inside Syria. We regularly report on key events, and our field teams provide updates regarding our Kurdish relief and rebuilding initiatives on the ground.
Secondly, we can be prayerful. Despite the failures of men, we have seen God’s faithfulness demonstrated again and again to the Kurdish people. There stands open a “wide and effectual door” to the Kurdish world right now, and we are confident that our prayers move the heart and hands on the One who moves kings, whether they be friendly or foe. We know that a greater war is eventually coming to the Middle East, but we do not know when or how it will unfold. God is sovereign, but we are not called to be fatalistic. We can pray for divine protection over the Kurds, for the restraint of demonic principalities and their human proxies, and we can pray for good-willed leadership across the globe to be granted wisdom, discernment and courage in the midst of a of dark and murky season of history.
Thirdly, we can advocate for the Kurdish people. The Kurds are a people group created in the image of God, just like every other. They are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” just as we are. But unlike every other major people group in the world, the Kurds have been denied all of these rights for over a century. We can speak out as influencers in any capacity we’ve been given. We can respectfully confront our elected leaders and demand change through every channel of communication. We can gather together in public prayer and solidarity with the Kurdish people throughout the world, as many have already done. And we can stand with the Kurds financially by supporting ministries and initiatives that strengthen their communities and which communicate our love for them in a tangible way. Because most importantly, and most urgently, the Kurdish people should know the love of their Creator, the faithfulness of the One who says “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” and the grace of the One who is familiar with the pain of betrayal, abandonment, shame, suffering and death, but who now offers the joy and hope of an indestructible life.
FAI is proud to provide our global partners with the following ways to advocate for the Kurdish people:
1.) Direct financial support can be given here: https://www.faimission.org/donate 100% of your donation can be earmarked to fund our ministries in Kurdistan or other worthy ministries throughout the Middle East. Learn more at https://fairelief.org or at our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FAIrelief/
2.) Join us for a Night of Prayer for the Kurds on Sunday, October 27th at the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC. We will gather in the capital of the free world to lift up intercessory petitions to the Righteous One who can number the hairs of every Kurdish head, and who can channel the heart of a king like a stream of water. Registration is free and details are provided at https://www.prayforthekurds.org/.
3.) You can Visit Iraqi Kurdistan in 2020, where you’ll see first-hand the awesome beauty of this diverse country and experience the warm hospitality of your Kurdish hosts. You’ll enjoy a full itinerary with important Kurdish figures and renown Bible teachers. But most importantly, you’ll be able to look our Kurdish friends and neighbors in the eye, and tell them face-to-face that you love them and stand with them. FAI partnering with Living Passages and Kurdish authorities to offer this exclusive opportunity. You can learn more at https://livingpassages.com/tour/legacy-kurdistan-2020/
We believe this three-fold cord of prayer, support and advocacy cannot be easily broken. It’s a powerful thing. It’s the right thing. It’s the Christ-exalting thing. We’re in this thing for the long-haul. Will you join us?