Kurds protesting Ankara’s expansion into Syria march through the streets of an ethnic-Kurdish border town.
They marched through the streets of this ethnic-Kurdish hub along the border with Turkey on Saturday, denouncing Ankara’s expansion into Syrian border regions that are the traditional homeland of many Kurds.
A Syrian Kurdish woman holds a sign during a protest in Qamishli, Syria, against Turkey’s military advance into Syria.“Our sons and brothers were killed defending this land from the terrorists, and now Erdogan is sending them back,” said Badyaa Ameen, 55, who was among hundreds of women leading the march. “We will never give up our land. We will reclaim our territory.”
Since most Syrian government troops withdrew from the area in 2012, a Kurdish-led coalition has carved out an autonomous zone covering a third of Syria’s national territory. The Kurds defended the zone against Islamic State militants with the help of U.S. air power — but angered Ankara. A Russian-Turkish deal last month mandated that Kurdish-led military forces withdraw to points at least 19 miles south of the border. Replacing them has been a mix of Syrian government border guards and joint patrols involving Russian and Turkish troops.
The woman’s son, Mahmoud Khalaf, 39, had been killed by sniper fire as Turkish forces advanced on their village, Tal Ward, about 10 miles to the north of Tal Tamr, in the Turkish-controlled strip.His body lay in a makeshift morgue in the rear of the hospital. Hospital workers soon carried his remains, in a black body bag, to the rear of waiting pickup truck. His grieving mother was helped into the pickup. The truck headed for the cemetery.
But the Gasso family, like others in Derbasiyeh, remains in a volatile border sector, a geopolitical hot spot near deployments of forces from Turkey, Russia, the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led militia — as well as a small number of troops from the United States, who remain in the region to protect oil resources, according to Trump. Foreign troops keep rolling through this strategic stretch of terrain.
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