Daesh is gone, but the fear remains

Spiegel Online
Daesh is gone, but the fear remains

The joy was genuine. Photos of happy women, cheers – all of this happened a week ago, when the city of Manbij in northern Syria was liberated from the terrorist regime of Daesh. People shaved their beards, smoked cigarettes and burned paranjas. There is one small detail that should be mentioned: on many videos, both the liberators and the liberated spoke in Kurdish. But 80% of the residents of Manbij, which was previously populated by 150 thousand people, were always Arabs, and there were Kurdish, Turkmen and Circassian minorities.

But Kurdish militants from the 'Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) became the liberators of Manbij, they managed to capture the city after weeks of fierce clashes, with the active support of American aviation. There are several small Arab groups in this organization, but the overwhelming majority of its soldiers and the entire command staff are Kurds. They are part of a well-organized militant group, which acts under the banners of the YPG in Syria, and the PKK in Turkey. They act under the portraits of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has already become iconic.

Photos and videos from Manbij, as well as access to the city, absolutely everything is controlled by the new government. Suddenly there are new Kurdish military and city councils, although, prior to the terrible reign of Daesh, Manbij was governed by an elected city council. There is the YPG abbreviation on many buildings. The image of the liberators is only half of the truth.

Anyone who does not support us is our enemy

"We wanted to return home," leading figure of the old city council Monzer al-Salah says. "We wanted to get our home back after it was taken by Daesh in January of 2014. But now, when our relatives tried to get there, they found out that the house has already been confiscated by the SDF. It belongs to a Salah family? But they are against us, so this house belongs to us now," they heard in reply.

The famous lawyer and writer Hassan Al-Naifi, who spent 15 years in prison during the Assad regime, cannot return. "My brother and his family stayed in Manbij. When Daesh retreated, they took them along as hostages and released them in a village not far from their last bastion Jarabulus. Now they want to return, but they are not allowed to. The Kurds say that the road has been mined."

Other members of the former city council were offered cooperation by the SDF, but their proposal was rejected. "They want to rule alone, under the principle 'anyone who does not support us is our enemy'. They say that Manbij is a part of their Kurdish state. We asked the Americans to help us, but they refused. They need this organization to fight Daesh, so they can't put pressure on them."

The topography of northern Syria is problematic, and because of this, peace won't return to the region even after Daesh is gone, regardless of how the war between Assad and the rebels turns out. For years there have been three separate Kurdish regions on the border with Turkey: Afrin in the west, Kobani in the middle and Al-Qamishli in the east. Sunni Arab cities and villages lie between them.

Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011, the SDF/PKK have pursued a zigzag-like policy, cooperating with the Assad regime at one time, then with the rebels, as well as inviting the US and Russia to become allies. And they have succeeded: they helped Assad's troops to finish the encirclement of Aleppo in the north-west with the help of Russian aviation. In the northeast, the US bombings provide crucial support in the Kurds' advance against Daesh.

All of this serves only one purpose: to connect the three divided Kurdish "cantons" and create Rojava, Western Kurdistan, as an independent state, if it is possible. But in order to do this they have to persuade, enslave or exile their Arab neighbors.

Fierce thirst for power

In the autumn of last year, the human rights organization Amnesty International reported about the systematic exile of people and the destruction of Arab villages in the areas occupied by the Kurdish militants. Several days before the liberation of Manbij, Kurdish troops forced the residents of eight neighboring villages to abandon them. According to one of the residents that had to escape, in case of disobedience the Kurds threatened them by saying that American aviation would turn their villages into ashes.

The party's thirst for power among the Kurds themselves is also becoming ever more fierce. After the victory in Manbij there was a wave of arrests among Syrian Kurdish politicians and journalists, who still oppose the monopoly of the SDF, in many other places. YPG troops arrested dozens of men in Al-Hasakah and Al-Qamishli. The most famous among them, Ibrahim Biro, was deported to Iraq several hours later. They threatened him that he would be killed if he returned to Syria.

Statements made by the new rulers of Manbij are also unclear. "No one contacted me regarding the issue of return," a representative of the new military council of the SDF Shirvan Darvish said: "The villagers were evacuated by us, but only for their own safety."

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