After Turkey invaded Afrin in 2018, the Assad regime sent a small contingent of militia to supposedly help repel the invasion. In fact they were completely ineffective and soon withdrew.
But it was understandable that some people in Afrin would welcome what appeared to be help in repelling the invasion. The pictures of Assad were unfortunate. Some people were hoping that Assad would save them from the Turkish invasion. At approximately the same time demonstrators in Idlib were carrying Turkish flags and hoping that Turkey would save them from Assad. In both cases their hopes were misplaced. Chris Slee ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Louis Proyect <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, 25 February 2021 10:44 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [marxmail] Kneel and Starve: Under the Watchful Eye of the Secret Police, Syrians Go Hungry - Newlines Institute Yesterday I was appalled to read a NY Times article titled “Syrian Militias Enter Afrin, Dealing a Setback to Turkey” that began: Militias loyal to the Syrian government swept into the northwestern enclave of Afrin on Thursday in support of Kurdish militias, reclaiming the territory and stealing a march on Turkish forces that have been battling toward the city for nearly a month. Television broadcasts and social media postings showed crowds celebrating in the main square of the city of Afrin, waving flags and holding posters of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned in Turkey on terrorism charges. The photo accompanying the article said it all: [https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/23/world/23syria/merlin_134416500_478de59c-cf5a-4188-ac6b-97f9a30dd5ed-master768.jpg] While I have become inured to Syrian Kurds making realpolitik type alliances for the past six years, I was still stunned to see them holding aloft a photo of man who systematically bombs hospitals. Does a non-aggression pact with Syria’s blood-soaked family dynast entail holding up his portrait? I certainly understood the need for the USSR to sign a non-aggression pact with Hitler in 1939 but would that require the Communist press to curtail its attacks on the Nazi persecution of Jews? Um, come to think of it, that did happen… I suppose that this is not totally unexpected. Until September 2017, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) was led by Salih Muslim who is on record as believing that unless Assad was part of Syria’s solution, 2 million Alawites would die. Evidently he was unaware of how the hard-core supporters of Assad had painted graffiti “Either Assad or the Country Burns” all across the country. Just two weeks after Assad had launched a Sarin gas attack in East Ghouta that cost the lives of up to 1,729 people, Salih Muslim told Reuters<https://anfenglish.com/news/saleh-muslim-i-doubt-assad-used-chemical-weapons-7847> that it was a false flag aimed at framing Assad and provoking an international reaction. In other words, there was nothing to distinguish him from the Vanessa Beeleys of the world. full: https://louisproyect.org/2018/02/24/the-rojova-illusion/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6712): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6712 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80630195/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
