MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : INFLUX & EXIT AFRIN / THE YPG/PYD ARE THE LOOSERS
By Seth Frantzman – Jerusalem Post – 7 May 2018
Many of the IDPs and Syrian rebels evacuated from eastern Ghouta have been moved to Afrin, the area Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies took over between January and March. This report vividly shows how it has happened. And this report below is sympathetic to the people being moved from eastern Ghouta.
Anyone under the impression that the conflict in Afrin was merely about “security” never understood that before the conflict began in January a quiet deal was made. In exchange for Russia and the Syrian regime not opposing the Afrin operation, an agreement would be made by which Syrian rebels would leave eastern Ghouta. So it was a quiet exchange. The rebels and Turkey got Afrin (which Turkey cared about), and the Syrian regime and Russia got to remove obstacles for their power around Damascus and other areas.
It is part of the larger goal of freezing the conflict into clear zones of “de-escalation. Russia and the regime’s goal is contiguous space, reduction in fighting so the regime can have some space to relax after seven years of conflict. For Turkey the concept is also contiguous border areas of “security”.
Of course for the YPG/PYD they are the loser in all this, as well as the 140,000 Kurds displaced by fighting. But that is because the regime, Russia and Turkey all oppose the US role with the SDF in eastern Syria. So therefore they agreed about certain issues, even if they have other differences.
https://acu-sy.org/…/Forced-Displacement-from-the-Eastern-G…
