“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, pleas the widow’s cause.” – Isaiah 1:17 ESV
Over the past couple weeks, the eyes of the world have been turned towards the Syrian Kurds as they face a Turkish onslaught. The Turkish invasion of Syria came on the heels of United States President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the last of U.S. troops from the region.
The U.S. military had been supporting the Kurdish armies in Syria in the fight against ISIS. Now in the absence of U.S. forces, Turkey has taken the liberty of carrying out attacks on Kurdish civilians in Syria. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been twisting the facts in the media, tweeting that they are launching this operation to neutralize terror threats from the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK) & the People’s Protection Units (YPG) against Turkey.
Now, rather than being treated as a force to fight terrorism in the region, the Kurds are being labeled by Turkey as the terrorists.
Turkey considers the YPG forces in Northern Syria to be an offshoot of the PKK in Turkey. The PKK has been known to employ terrorist tactics in Turkey, killing hundreds of innocent Turkish civilians, and has been labeled a terrorist organization by the US State Department and the European Union.
However, the YPG is not equal to the PKK. They have not employed the tactics of the PKK and have not used Northern Syria as a foothold to launch attacks in Turkey.
In the midst of these accusations one thing has become clear, the Turkish incursion of Northern Syria has not been an innocent attempt to fight terrorism. Our friend and colleague, Chris Mitchell, explains in this article how “there’s actually a strong element of Islamic jihad at the heart of Turkey’s agenda.”
On Thursday, the U.S. declared that it had helped to broker a ceasefire, but then Turkey went and violated the ceasefire the very next day. As JPost writer, Seth Frantzman, reported, “Turkey viewed it as a “pause” in military operations and Turkish-backed groups on the ground didn’t seem to have to adhere to it. This leaves Syrian civilians, including many Kurds, in the crossfire in towns such as Sere Kaniye.” To learn more about the evidence of atrocities and war crimes that are mounting against the Turks read more in this JPost article.
In the face of watching this difficult situation unfold, what can be done?
PRAY | You can pray for the Kurds with Frontier Alliance International in Washington D.C this coming Sunday, October 27th. To learn more & livestream the event visit: www.prayforthekurds.org
RAISE YOUR VOICE | If you are U.S. citizen, you can contact your State representatives, and ask them to deploy U.S. military forces to provide urgent assistance to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and impose a no fly zone.
DONATE | The need is growing as SDF Commander General Mazloum stated over 400,000 Kurds have been displaced. Please visit our donate page & include a note with your gift that says: “For the Kurds.”
How to Pray:
– Pray for a true ceasefire that causes Turkey’s troops to withdraw.
– Pray for a peace agreement between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds.
– Pray that the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the region will be able to return to their homes.