Reportage

In northeast Syria, Kurds worry about consequences of Turkish attacks

On the road near Qamichli, Syria, Wednesday, January 11, 2023, a charred car, hit by a projectile from a drone.

© Julien Boileau / RFI

Text by: Murielle Paradon Follow |

Julien Boileau

3 mins

Northeastern Syria, under Kurdish administration, has been under Turkish bombardment since late November.

An operation was launched by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after an attack in Istanbul attributed to the Kurds, which they deny.

Where are we today in these attacks?

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From our special envoys,

Turkish shelling of northern Syria is less intense than last month, but there are still sporadic attacks.

Yesterday, Wednesday January 11 for example on a busy road between Qamichli and Hassake on which we passed, a car had just been targeted by a Turkish drone.

In any case, this is what witnesses said.

We actually saw the smoking carcass of the vehicle and the impact on the road.

There were two injuries, one seriously.

Near the front line between the Turks and the Kurdish forces that rule this region of northeast Syria, we were able to visit a half-destroyed town.

A lot of civilian infrastructure was affected.

We met residents who had fled a few kilometers away, to a school.

We could hear shelling in the distance.

Families were there, traumatized, destitute.

There's not much help, they say, and it's the middle of winter.

And some families have even been there for several months because Turkish operations are recurrent in northern Syria.

I was working on my farm there when I heard "ssssshhh", the sound of a missile.

Then the explosion.

I went to look and saw an exploded car on the road.

People gathered, and we went to help to take the victims to the hospital.

A man was seriously injured, I think his leg was almost severed.

His wife is fine, she was able to help us carry it....

Listen to the report on a busy road between Qamichli and Hassake, with the participation of Jiwan Mirzo

Julien Boileau Murielle Paradon

Why this Turkish operation?

The trigger for Turkey's military operation in northern Syria was the

which killed six people and which was

.

So there are security reasons.

But there are also more political reasons.

President

, he is playing on the nationalist rope.

Getting rid of "Kurdish enemies" in northeastern Syria to relocate Syrian refugees there, who are very numerous on Turkish territory, nearly 4 million, could be a profitable argument.

In any case, this is the analysis delivered by Kurdish political and military leaders here.

► To read also: 

Towards a rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus?

For the moment this is not the case, Erdogan has even threatened a ground offensive.

On the other hand, there is another source of concern: it is a possible rapprochement between Turkey and the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

There have been high-level talks recently between the two sides that have a common hatred of the Kurds.

"Our democratic project displeases these dictators", like to repeat the Kurdish leaders we met.

It should also be remembered that Bashar al-Assad would ultimately like to recover this region in the north-east of the country under Kurdish autonomous administration, a region which escapes him for the moment.

If this alliance between the Turks and the Syrian regime took shape, the Kurds say they would be hunted down, and this could create new migratory flows, especially towards Europe.

In addition, the Turkish bombardments divert the Kurdish forces from their fight against the Islamic State organization.

As we have seen in recent weeks, jihadist attacks have multiplied in northeastern Syria.

IS takes advantage of this.

So the Kurds are warning the West: we have to put pressure on Turkey, we have to support us, otherwise everyone will pay the consequences.

►Also read: Syria: fuel shortages hit the population hard

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