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Vol. 81/No. 27 July 25, 2017
Struggle for influence deepens as US-led forces gain in Iraq, Syria
BY JIM BRADLEY
As U.S.-led forces drive towards military victory over Islamic State in
its former strongholds of Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, the political
and military maneuvering for influence and territory between Washington
and Moscow and Tehran is intensifying. Syria’s bloody civil war, which
has devastated the population, driving more than half from their homes,
is now in its seventh year.
Washington’s continuing military role in Syria and Iraq is rooted in
efforts by Democratic and Republican administrations alike, under cover
of defeating Islamic State, to reimpose stability in the region and
defend their imperialist interests.
Preparations for a Sept. 25 binding independence referendum by the
Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq are continuing. Washington,
Moscow, Tehran, Ankara and Baghdad all oppose it. There are substantial
Kurdish populations adjacent to each other in Iraq, Iran, Syria and
Turkey. Some 30 million Kurdish people are the largest nationality in
the world without their own homeland.
At the same time close to a million people rallied against the Turkish
government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan July 9 in a broad demonstration of
opposition to the regime’s repressive state of emergency.
At the end of June military clashes took place between U.S. forces and
militia loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They are in
competition for control of territory around al-Tanf near the majority
Shiite southern areas of Iraq. At issue are potential moves by Tehran to
create a land link through this area to their ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Following the first face-to-face meeting between President Donald Trump
and Russian President Vladimir Putin July 7, Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson announced that Washington, Moscow and the monarchy of King
Abdullah in Jordan had agreed to foster a cease-fire — with agreement of
Damascus — in a limited area of southwestern Syria. It began July 9. The
area covers Syria’s borders with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and
southern Lebanon.
While Kurdish and Syrian Democratic Forces have advanced their drive to
liberate Raqqa, the reactionary Islamic State has been shifting its
troops and leadership into the Euphrates Valley, where it surrounds
200,000 people in the Syrian provincial capital of Deir al-Zour. Holding
and advancing in this area is important for Assad’s drive to effectively
retake control of the country.
The Iranian government recently escalated its role in the Syrian war by
launching missiles from Iranian territory against Islamic State targets
in eastern Syria. Tehran has been supporting the Syrian regime with
Iranian officers, Shiite militias from throughout the region and
Hezbollah fighting under Moscow’s air cover.
Tehran aims to win control over territory through Iraq and Syria to
Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea. Washington opposes any increase in
Iranian influence in the region.
The Syrian civil war began in 2011 after the Assad regime used its army
to brutally crush a popular rebellion for democratic rights. Since then
hundreds of thousands have died.
Mobilization in Istanbul
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered for a mass “Justice Rally”
organized by the bourgeois opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in
Istanbul July 9. The action culminated a 25-day march from Ankara to
Istanbul.
The protests mark growing opposition to a broad anti-democratic
crackdown by the Erdogan government. His government used a failed coup
attempt last July to establish a state of emergency that has led to
firings and arrests of tens of thousands across the country. The attacks
have hit all opposition to Erdogan, including the CHP, but have hit
hardest at the Kurds and the Kurdish-led Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
The HDP, along with a wide range of unions, including the Confederation
of Progressive Trade Unions and Confederation of Public Sector Trade
Unions, mobilized for the demonstration.
At a certain point the cops blocked tens of thousands more from entering
the rally, saying the area was full.
Fight for Kurdish independence
One unintended consequence of Washington’s wars in the region and the
civil war that has splintered Syria has been the success of Kurdish
forces carving out autonomous regions in both northern Iraq and Syria.
The U.S.-led coalition forged a tactical alliance with the Kurdish
Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG)
military wing in Syria, as well as with the Kurdistan Regional
Government’s peshmerga in Iraq, because of the organizational strength
and fighting prowess of the Kurdish forces. President Trump has
maintained the alliance with the YPG over the strong objection of the
Turkish government, which views the YPG as a terrorist organization
linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, which has been
locked in a bloody struggle with Ankara for Kurdish national rights for
over three decades.
YPG forces in Afrin, a Kurdish canton in western Syria, have been facing
daily bombardment by Turkish-led forces. Ankara has sent troops, tanks
and other heavy weapons into the Afrin area with the announced intention
of clearing the YPG “terrorists” out of the territory, which is near the
Syria-Turkey border. Thousands of Kurds marched in the streets of Afrin
July 5 to protest the bombings and the Turkish military buildup.
Erdogan has repeatedly stated that Ankara will not permit the
establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Syria, home to 2 million
Kurds. The YPG seeks to link up the larger autonomous Kurdish cantons in
the east with their canton in Afrin in the west.
Ankara fears that the consolidation of a Kurdish ministate in Syria
would embolden the struggle of the 15 million Kurds within Turkey for
their national rights. For the same reason, Erdogan is staunchly opposed
to the KRG’s Sept. 25 independence referendum.
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