Greenlighted by Trump, Turkey Invades Syria

The year began with the United States’ Syria policy in tatters: President Donald Trump had announced that he would be withdrawing all U.S. troops, Secretary of Defense James Mattis had resigned, and Trump’s remaining deputies were scrambling to convince him to reverse course. 

Fast-forward to the end of 2019, and, after convincing Trump for the second time not to pull all U.S. forces out of Syria, senior officials still can’t seem to get on the same page when it comes to America’s objectives there.

In between, the United States tried and failed to stop Turkey from launching a long-promised military operation into northeastern Syria, with the intention of rooting out the Kurdish fighters who have been the U.S. military’s crucial partner in the fight against the Islamic State but whom Ankara views as a terrorist threat. On Oct. 7, Trump withdrew troops from the border, paving the way for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his proxy forces to sweep across the region, killing hundreds of Kurdish fighters and civilians and displacing 200,000 people. 

Though a cease-fire brokered by Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin largely halted the assault, Turkey’s Arab proxies who now control the 20-mile buffer zone between the Syrian border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain continue to terrorize the local population. Residents also fear the influx of roughly 3 million Syrian refugees, whom Erdogan has begun resettling in the area. 

Meanwhile, while Trump moved most of the roughly 800 special forces stationed in northeastern Syria to Iraq, he deployed hundreds of additional troops and armored vehicles to Deir Ezzor province ostensibly on a different mission—to guard the region’s rich oil fields, which once bankrolled the Islamic State’s terrorism. But the murky mission has raised questions about who exactly it is the U.S. military is supposed to be fighting—the Islamic State, or the myriad state actors in the region, from Iran to Russia?

Here are five reads from the last year on the issue of Syria and the Kurds. 

1. How the Iran Hawks Botched Trump’s Syria Withdrawal

by Lara Seligman, Oct. 30

How did we get here? Lara Seligman traces how a group of Iran hawks in the upper echelon of the administration repeatedly sought to reverse Trump’s Syria withdrawal, culminating in a devastating Turkish attack.

2. Despite Syria ‘Safe Zone,’ Kurdish Leader Fears Threat from Turkey

by Lara Seligman, Sept. 23

In an interview that turned out to be prescient, just weeks before Trump’s second withdrawal announcement and Turkey’s incursion into northeastern Syria, Ilham Ahmed, a co-chair of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council, warned that the creation of a “safe zone” on the border involving joint U.S. and Turkish patrols could be a prelude to a Turkish invasion.

Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces stand in formation during a victory announcement ceremony over the defeat of the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate at Omar Academy in Deir Ezzor, Syria, on March 23. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Ray Boyington

3. ‘Some of the Most Noble People I’d Ever Met’

Former and current military officers who fought alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) described the Kurdish-led fighters as America’s strongest ally against terrorism in the region, telling Seligman they were devastated and ashamed by Trump’s decision to step aside and let the Turks sweep into the region. 

4. If We Have to Choose Between Compromise and Genocide, We Will Choose Our People

Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the SDF’s commander in chief, explains in an op-ed for Foreign Policy why his forces decided to partner with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his Russian backers. 

5. Assad Hasn’t Won Anything

Top Syria expert Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, acknowledges that Assad has all but won the country’s seven-year civil war, but he argues that the victory is a hollow one.