Recent days have seen a dramatic escalation in Turkey’s aggression against North and East Syria with a series of heavy airstrikes across the region targeting civilian infrastructure including electrical facilities, fuel depots, factories, food and water infrastructure, and even a hospital. These attacks have resulted in the deaths and injuries of civilians, massive disruption of vital services, and a general climate of fear.
Turkey’s actions not only signify a dramatic and concerning escalation in violence, they also constitute clear violations of international and humanitarian law, as well as the US-brokered 2019 ceasefire agreement. As winter approaches in a region already suffering from war-torn infrastructure and economic isolation, the inability to distribute basic necessities such as water, electricity and gas could prove catastrophic.
Following a recent attack in Ankara (claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) that injured two police officers, the Turkish government, falsely claiming a connection between the attack and North and East Syria, declared an all out war on the region’s infrastructure, dubbing it “YPG infrastructure”, in reference to the People’s Protection Units— the Kurdish-led force which founded the Syrian Democratic Forces. This half-hearted attempt at justification only laid bare Turkey’s true intentions: to crush the region’s democratic revolution by terrorizing civil society itself. To this end, Turkish president Erdogan seeks also to prepare the ground for a major ground invasion; something which he has repeatedly threatened in recent years. Turkey’s past incursions and subsequent occupations have led to mass displacement, ethnic cleansing of Kurds and other minority groups, and rampant human rights abuses in places like Afrin and Serekaniye.
While carrying out its recent attacks, Turkey flew one of their armed drones so close to an American military base that it was deemed a threat to the safety of US soldiers and subsequently shot down. Brazen acts like this demonstrate Turkey’s near-total lack of self-restraint in pursuit of its own destabilizing and expansionist ambitions. The question, then is: who will hold Turkey accountable? Here, the United States undoubtedly has a critical role to play.
President Biden is currently pushing Congress to approve the sale of new F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. As Turkish bombs rain down on Syrian civilians (from both drones and jets), the result of such a sale could hardly be more obvious. Providing Turkey with more air power would further enable this aggression, deepening their sense of impunity and effectively rewarding them for their crimes. Additionally, this would directly undermine the joint efforts of the US-led international coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces to secure regional stability through the enduring defeat of ISIS.
As the new chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland has the power, and the responsibility, to block the F-16 sale. His past statement that “We have both a moral and a national security obligation to ensure that U.S. weapons, equipment, and training are never used to harm civilians” is encouraging, but only his actions can demonstrate whether he intends to apply this standard equally to Turkey.
The people of North and East Syria have taken to the streets of cities across the region to protest Turkey’s aggression, calling on the international community to take action. How will Americans answer the call?