• The Kurdish mercenaries of the PKK/YPG who administer north-east Syria for the benefit of the US occupation hoisted the flag of the new regime on their buildings on 12 December in order to demonstrate the unity of the country.

• Turkish troops are massing on the border, opposite Ain al-Arab (Kobane).

• All observers agree that, without the military support of the United States, the Kurdish mercenaries will not last long in the face of a Turkish offensive.

☞ After the ANS/Türkiye drove Kurdish fighters out of their stronghold of Tell Rifaat in the Aleppo region and then out of the city of Manbij, the US brokered a temporary ceasefire between the PKK/YPG and Türkiye. It is already being questioned.

☞ The 1991 Gulf War (operation “Desert Storm”) allowed the United States to create the first Kurdish state in Iraq. The 2011 war against Syria allowed them to just as artificially create a Kurdish zone in Syria. However, the King-Crane Commission, formed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, indicated that Kurdistan should only be in Turkey. It warned against any territorial extension to the detriment of other minorities. The 2017 independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan was supposed to create a satellite state of Israel, but Türkiye, Iran and Iraq opposed it.

This is the editorial from our paywalled “Voltaire, international newsletter”, n°113. For more information, do not hesitate to subscribe: 500€ per year.

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