Lemonde.fr

Thousands of Kurds have died to rid Syria and the world of the scourge of ISIS. These courageous men and women, supported by the international coalition, broke the myth of invincibility of ISIS, drove it village after village from all the territories where it raged including Raqqa, capital of its so-called caliphate.

In parallel with the fighting, the Kurds set up institutions, elected representatives of the local populations to manage these territories. They have hosted, with very little international assistance, more than half a million refugees and displaced largely Arabs, fleeing the barbarity of ISIS or that of the Syrian regime. At the moment when, after seven years of hardships, they thought they would see the end of this war and were preparing to hold elections, they are now being subjected to the condemnation of Turkish President Erdogan, disappointed by the defeat of his jihadist allies and the failure of its Syrian policy.

Turkey, which until the end of 2015 fully accommodated the presence of ISIS at its border, which supported, sheltered, trained, armed various jihadist movements, launched its tanks and its aviation against the peaceful canton of Afrin under the pretext of eradicating the "terrorist" Kurdish militia that would threaten its borders, thus exposing hundreds of thousands of civilians to exodus and starvation. It wants to install its Syrian auxiliaries, mostly from various jihadist factions named for the occasion Free Syrian Army and destroy local secular institutions.

Here Afrin, who has remained out of the war and served as a refuge for displaced populations, is threatened with occupation and destruction by the tyrant in Ankara. A tyrant who, not content with having devastated about fifteen cities in Turkish Kurdistan, jailed thousands of Kurdish patriots, is now attacking Syrian Kurdistan to create a buffer zone along its border with Syria. This invasion is done with the green light of Russia, which controls Syrian airspace, and Damascus, which considers Kurdish fighters as "traitors" because of their cooperation with the United States and France in the war against ISIS.
And what are these Western allies doing to defend their brothers in arms who are being attacked? Nothing, except some vague statements calling Turkey to "restrain". None dared to condemn Ankara for this deliberate attack. It seems that the Turkish tyrant who terrorizes his population is also paralyzing Western leaders.
The Turkish invasion is clearly a deliberate act of aggression. The canton of Afrin was no basis for any attack against Turkey. The rest of the territory of Syrian Kurdistan either. The Turkish-Syrian border was porous at least until 2015, when it was controlled by Syrian ISIS. The Turks built a 600-kilometer wall as soon as Kurdish forces took control of it by driving out the jihadists.
As for terrorism, for the Turkish president, all those who, lawyers, journalists, academics, political activists, do not agree with him are terrorists if they are Kurdish or supposed pro-Kurds or supporters of peace or sympathizers of his ex-ally the preacher Fethullah Gülen. The secular Turkish opponents are considered "traitors". And if we admit with Erdogan that the YPG (People's Protection Units) are terrorists, then the United States and France would be guilty of collaboration with a terrorist organization!

The Islamic-fascist regime that Erdogan is putting in place in Turkey, with the support of the National Movement Party (MHP, ultra-nationalist), has stalled the media, justice and civil society. Even mosques must respond in unison to the chief's orders. Hated by a large part of the population because of his outrage, his massive repression, his dismantling of the rule of law, isolated on the international level, the Turkish president blindly forges ahead in the hope that external military victories will restore his domestic popularity.
After nearly forty years of war, more than 50,000 deaths, two to three million displaced, 3,400 villages, Kurdish forests and agropastoral economy destroyed, Turkey still believes in an impossible military victory against the guerrillas of the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) and for that, it risks putting the whole region to fire and blood.

The Turkish president, by his postures, looks more and more like the Saddam Hussein of the last years. It has become a real danger to regional stability and peace. A danger that cannot be averted by policies of appeasement or shameful silences. France, which has historical responsibilities - it is she who with the British Empire drew the map of the Middle East, ratifying the division of Kurdistan - and strong emotional ties with the Kurdish people, must use all its influence at the UN and in Europe. It must enforce international law, to force Turkey to immediately withdraw its troops from Afrin, to ensure that its Kurdish allies are not sacrificed on the altar of realpolitik during negotiations on the future of Syria and to initiate a peace process to settle the Kurdish issue in Turkey within existing borders.