US ‘betrayed’ Syrian Kurds
Says Moscow; Trump hails deal struck between Russia and Turkey
♦ Russian forces head for Syrian-Turkish border in blow to Kurds
♦ Erdogan vows ‘necessary steps’ if US, Russian promises not kept
The Kremlin yesterday accused Washington of betraying the Kurds by withdrawing its forces from northern Syria and leaving allies alone in the face of a Turkish offensive.
To international surprise, US President Donald Trump announced in early October that American forces would withdraw from Syria, paving the way for Turkey to push into the border area against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia it considers “terrorists”.
“The US were the closest allies for the Kurds for several years. In the end the US abandoned the Kurds, effectively betraying them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
“They prefer to leave the Kurds at the border and practically force them to fight the Turks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian forces in Syria yesterday headed for the border with Turkey to ensure Kurdish fighters pull back after a deal between Moscow and Ankara wrested control of the Kurds’ entire heartland.
US President Donald Trump called the agreement a “big success”.
The deal -- hailed as “historic” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- quashes the Kurdish minority’s dreams of a semi-autonomous region and makes way for the absorption of their de facto army into the regime’s military.
Erdogan vowed that Turkey would take “the necessary steps” if promises to push Kurdish fighters away from the border were not kept.