Turkish-Orchestrated Attacks on Kurds Threaten Israeli Interests Too

(JNS) Intensified assaults on Kurdish-held regions in northeast Syria in recent days by a Turkish-backed umbrella group of factions are a threat to Israeli security interests, according to Israeli observers.

Recent gains by the Kurds following the collapse of Syria’s Tehran-backed Assad regime have placed them in control of a key region used by Iran for many years to smuggle arms via neighboring Iraq.

According to senior research scholar Ely Karmon of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University in Herzliya, these developments should prompt the United States and Israel into looking at options for providing military assistance to the Kurds, in the form of arms and training.

“For this to happen, [U.S. President-elect Donald] Trump must be persuaded that the vital thing to do in the war against Islamic State and against Iran is to recruit the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran to the mission,” said Karmon.

More generally, Karmon argued in favor of forming a system of alliances with minorities in Syria, comprising the Druze in southern Syria and the Kurds in the north. This, he argued, would create a barrier to future attempts by Iran and its Shi’ite Iraqi militias to once again infiltrate Syria. This alliance, he argued, should include military assistance.

Karmon noted that a Turkish intelligence delegation arrived in Syria on Dec. 12, the same day that a Qatari delegation arrived in the country, and met with Syrian rebel leader Ahmad Sharaa to discuss ways to “stabilize” Syria. Karmon cautioned that Turkey is already working to influence Syria, and is trying to compete with Iran in this capacity.

“We have to be concerned by the prospect of a Turkish-based military platform in Syria, after [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan called on Muslim countries to attack Israel—a threat that must be taken seriously,” Karmon warned.

In a paper he published at the ICT on Dec. 10, Karmon wrote that the Syrian National Army mainly serves the interests of Erdogan in Syria, and that the SNA is made up of many factions, some secular and some Salafist. The SNA is the force “that is supposed to act against the Kurdish minority in the autonomous region, Rojava,” he added, noting that it has indeed begun attacking the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in the Manbij region of northern Syria.

“President Erdogan has a central role in keeping the Idlib region under the rule of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and building the Syrian National Army as a proxy for Turkey. Erdogan is the one who gave the green light for the rebels to launch an attack against the Assad regime after the Syrian president refused the Turkish president’s overtures to reach reconciliation and normalize relations as long as the Turkish army controlled part of Syrian territory,” said Karmon.

Professor Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), told JNS on Sunday that Israel has a long history of support for the Kurdish national movement.

“Sometimes there was great caution in contacts with the Kurds, when the security relations with Turkey, a very important country in the Middle East, were very good and served the Israeli struggle against Iran,” he said. “Today, Turkey under Erdogan is a bitter rival and no longer constitutes a restraining factor in relations with the Kurds,” he added.

According to Inbar, “Israel needs to extend assistance of all kinds to the Kurds, especially if they are fighting Muslim extremists. Of course, not all assistance has to be public.”

Inbar added that an attempt should be made to convince the incoming Trump administration to leave American forces in northern Syria, which enables Washington to have influence over the future of Syria, Iraq and also Jordan.

A Dec. 11 report by Voice of America noted that Israeli government officials have intensified calls to protect Syria’s Kurds as Turkish-backed armed groups fought to dislodge Kurdish forces from parts of Aleppo province, including Manbij. The report noted that the Kurdish-led SDF were a major U.S. partner in the fight against ISIS.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Dec. 9: “It’s a commitment of the international community towards those who fought bravely against ISIS. It’s also a commitment for the future of Syria, because the Kurds are a stabilizing force in this country.”

Israel has been discussing this issue with the United States and other countries, Sa’ar added.

Meanwhile, the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) noted in a report on Dec. 10 that “Manbij was key to Turkey’s ambitions in Syria: Manbij, the last SDF-controlled area west of the Euphrates, was key to Turkey’s goal of pushing the SDF eastward beyond the river.”

The report went on to state that “Turkish warplanes carried out three airstrikes near the Qara Quzaq Bridge, a critical link between the eastern and western banks of the Euphrates. In a separate incident, a Turkish drone strike on a house in the SDF-controlled village of Al-Mustariha in northern Raqqa killed 11 civilians.”

FDD non-resident senior fellow Sinan Ciddi said, “Turkey’s opportunism is beginning to take center stage. While the world remained focused on the fall of the Assad regime, Turkish-backed SNA fighters, supported by Turkish Air Force jets and drones, are beginning to attack Kurdish strongholds. The mission is to eliminate the SDF and end U.S. support for our partners who have defended the world against ISIS.”