Without being able to read the BasNews article, I am not sure exactly what Bahoz Erdal said or what he meant.
At the time the article was written (December 2019), Turkey had recently invaded part of north-eastern Syria. The Autonomous Administration had allowed some Assad regime troops onto its territory in the hope they would help deter the further expansion of the Turkish-occupied zone. In this context I assume that Erdal wanted to portray a common interest in fighting the Turkish occupation, which threatens to become permanent. His historical comments were presumably intended to help in creating this impression. But if he said that the YPG prevented Assad from "falling" in 2012, as Scott Lucas claims, I disagree. The fact that some rebel groups under Turkish influence were diverted away from fighting the Assad regime, attacking Rojava instead, no doubt helped Assad. But whether he was in danger of "falling" at that stage is doubtful. But in any case, rather than being grateful to the YPG and the people of Rojava, Assad has more reason to thank Turkey for creating conflict between Rojava and part of the rebel movement. Chris Slee ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Louis Proyect <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, 10 April 2021 12:07 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [marxmail] The fall of Rojava: hard lessons learned On 4/9/21 8:52 PM, Chris Slee wrote: The PYD's stated policy was not to initiate military conflict with anyone, but to fight in self-defence. https://eaworldview.com/2019/12/syria-daily-kurdish-pkk-leader-we-saved-assad-in-2012/ A leader of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK has claimed that the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG prevented Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad from falling in 2012. Bahoz Erdal (pictured), the commnader of the People’s Defense Center headquarters, said Assad should be grateful<http://www.basnews.com/index.php/tr/news/kurdistan/565457> to the militia and Kurdish officials in Syria for his survival against the Syrian opposition. “The regime should thank the YPG and the people of [the autonomous Kurdish region] of Rojava,” he explained. The statement was part of the latest ploy for negotiations between Syrian Kurdish factions and the Assad regime over the fate of northeast Syria. The YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces, created in October 2015 and supported by the US, have controlled most of the area since they began pushing out the Islamic State, whose last village fell in March. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7864): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7864 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81864222/21656 -=-=- 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
