US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTES TO RECOGNIZE AND CONDEMN TURKEY’S ARMENIAN GENOCIDE; TURKEY INCREASINGLY ALIENATED INTERNATIONALLY

The US House of Representatives, voting to recognize the Armenian Genocide. October 29, 2019.

More than 100 years after three-quarters of the Ottoman Empire’s two million Armenian residents were systematically slaughtered by the Turkish seat of Ottoman power in 1915, the United States House of Representatives voted by overwhelming majority to formally recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide, long denied by Turkey. The House also voted for President Trump to apply sanctions against Turkey in light of its ongoing campaign against the Kurdish people in northeastern Syria.

The votes came just days after US Special Forces, working with Kurdish intelligence agencies, assassinated ISIS founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar was the only Democratic Congressperson to not vote in favor of recognizing and condemning the genocide, instead voting “present.” She also voted against sanctioning Turkey, and reportedly met with Halil Mutlu the week prior. Mutlu is the co-chairman of the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC), a pro-Turkish advocacy organization based in the United States. 

Turkish Foreign Minister condemned both votes, while Turkish President Erdogan threatened retribution against opposing nations. 

Israel announced Wednesday it will close its embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul.

Turkey’s power moves across the region increasingly alienate the nation from the global community. Erdogan’s actions and definitions of terrorism (a charge brought against American pastor Andrew Brunson for affiliation with Kurdish refugees in Turkey) create a dangerous environment for foreign workers. Over the last several decades, Western laborers have sown the Gospel into Turkish soil. Pray for indigenous leaders to stand on their own and lead the growing Turkish church, and for her to stand during coming intensified persecution. 

Partner with FAI’s work in Turkey: faimission.org/turkey

Sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/us/politics/armenian-genocide-resolution.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50229787

https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/30/ilhan-omar-erdogan-turkey/

https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1187701319659855872?s=21

https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1189694723734163456?s=21

https://twitter.com/israelinturkey/status/1189448754765664257?s=21

Photo credit: Public Radio of Armenia

ISIS RESURGES IN SYRIA AMIDST TURKISH INVASION

Photo: Civilians fleeing from Baghuz, Syria to an SDF checkpoint in early 2019, after SDF forces took the final ISIS stronghold. (Credit: AFP)

Reports surfaced yesterday that Turkish-backed Islamist militiamen are releasing ISIS detainees from camps in Eastern Syria. US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity later confirmed the reports to multiple media outlets.

The disheartening news came just one day after almost 800 family members of ISIS fighters escaped from the Ain Issa detention camp in Northeast Syria. The breakdown in security at ISIS camps in Syria is raising international concern that the jihadist organization is reemerging after its caliphate was dismantled only months ago. The Kurdish-led SDF led the charge against the Islamic State for 5 years between 2014-2019, proving to be the most effective partner of the US-led Coalition in Syria, and has been responsible for administering over 12,000 ISIS detainees and 100,000 of their family members in several camps across the country. Many of the ISIS detainees are foreigners whose nations of origin refused to repatriate them for prosecution, leaving them in legal limbo in Kurdish territory.

Conditions were already dire in the camps at the beginning of October, before Turkey commenced Operation “Spring of Peace.” The overcrowded facilities lacked basic necessities and the radical Islamic teaching of ISIS was allowed to thrive unchecked. Factionalism, riots and mob justice had already threatened to spiral the camps beyond containment.

When the Turkish army and 14,000 of their militant Islamic Arab allies crossed the border into Northeast Syria on October 8, sleeper operatives of the Islamic State saw their opportunity to exploit the American withdrawal and the shift in the SDF’s focus. A string of bold and well-coordinated attacks followed:

• On the same day that the Turkish invasion began, a group of ISIS fighters attacked local security forces at the al-Basel base in al-Raqqa. Despite a heated gun battle and the deployment of several suicide bombers, the attack was successfully repelled. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the fight in the capital of its former caliphate.

• A massive vehicle-borne explosive detonated in Qamlishi on October 9, killing 3 and wounding 9 others. ISIS claimed responsibility for the blast in the border town that has served as the de-facto capital of the autonomous Kurdish government in Northeast Syria.

• The al-Hol ISIS detainee camp was in an uproar as reports spread of jihaddist cells active in the area on October 11th.

• ISIS claimed responsibility for a coordinated bombing and small-arms attack on an SDF checkpoint in Dayr al-Zur on October 14th, killing 4 militiamen.

The reemergence of ISIS in Syria is deeply troubling and distressing to Kurds in Iraq and Syria who fought so hard and sacrificed so much to defeat them. Turkey has a long-standing and well-documented tolerance for the jihadist group’s operation within its borders, even support. We would continue to ask our global partners to pray for a swift end to the Turkish operation, and that the specter of the caliphate would not be allowed to reemerge to threaten Kurdistan once again.

We covet your prayers, first and foremost. If you are also led to donate to the work that FAI is doing among our Kurdish friends and neighbors, you can do so here:

https://www.faimission.org/donate

Sources:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/12/turkeys-double-isis-standard/

https://www.businessinsider.com/contradicting-trump-us-officials-turkey-backed-forces-released-isis-2019-10

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/14/turkish-backed-forces-freeing-islamic-state-prisoners-syria/

https://twitter.com/IbnSiqilli/status/1183857754034696194

https://twitter.com/IbnSiqilli/status/1183857413004247040

https://twitter.com/SimNasr/status/1183713236664889345

https://twitter.com/SimNasr/status/1183389504926834690

https://twitter.com/YerevanSaeed/status/1182627480525557760

https://twitter.com/SirwanKajjo/status/1182707070388330497

https://twitter.com/Caki____/status/1181871797526024192

https://twitter.com/vvanwilgenburg/status/1182047367828267008

https://twitter.com/shervanderwish/status/1181714766525587456?s=21

https://twitter.com/AylinaKilic/status/1182675638085476352?s=20

https://w.longwarjournal.org/archives/2019/10/islamic-state-targets-syrias-qamishli-with-car-bomb.php

https://twitter.com/akramsalih7/status/1181712706937720833?s=21

https://twitter.com/cmoc_sdf/status/1181707512577441792?s=21

https://twitter.com/sirwankajjo/status/1181706355704500224?s=21

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/13/kurds-say-785-isis-affiliates-have-escaped-camp-after-turkish-shelling

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/world/middleeast/syria-camp-isis-families-islamic-state-extremism.html