Turkey, the Kurds and the Generational Trauma of the Armenians

A day after announcing his decision to withdraw American troops, U.S. President Donald Trump on October 7 tweeted: “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory…”

On October 14, the U.S. did impose sanctions against Turkish officials and institutions over the country’s incursion into Syria. Trump has also spoken to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling for an immediate ceasefire as Turkish troops move further into Syria.

Now in its sixth day, heavy fighting continues, with reports of dozens of military and civilian deaths and over 100,000 displaced. According to numerous reports, because of Turkish airstrikes, SDF fighters have had to abandon positions guarding prison camps, where ISIS fighters were being detained. Many have reportedly since been able to escape. SDF forces were also forced to leave posts at a refugee camp from which an estimated 800 ISIS brides and children have fled. Iraq has sent troops to fortify its border with Syria under fears it could be subjected to an ISIS resurgence.

The SDF, which had been administering the region without Damascus’ involvement, struck a deal with the Assad government to hand over the border towns of Manbij and Kobane. The deal was brokered by Russia, which has an interest in Assad reconsolidating his grip on the country, and will ultimately end several years of semi-autonomy for the Kurds of northeastern Syria.

It’s a complicated geopolitical battleground where many international and regional players, with varying interests and means, clash violently. Sadly, ordinary civilians pay the ultimate price. We see this same scenario being played out over and over again, from Yemen to Myanmar and beyond.

The overriding majority of Armenians, both in the Republic of Armenia and dispersed throughout the Diaspora are closely following the Turkish offensive in Syria, as they did when the Syrian conflict first began. Aside from the uprooting of strong, vibrant Armenian communities from Aleppo to Latakia to Damascus and many places in-between, there is something that cuts much deeper.

During the Armenian Genocide, 1.5 million Armenians were killed, many during a forced exile into the deserts of Syria by Ottoman Turkey. They perished, wiping away several millennia of existence on their ancestral homeland. Some of the survivors stayed in Syria, many in orphanages, and many more left to go on to other countries on other continents. They took a piece of their historic homeland with them and memories of Syria were embedded in their consciousness.

The human cost of the Syrian war has been great for both the Syrian people themselves and the ethnic and religious minorities who lived alongside them. Armenians, who remained in Syria after having found refuge there following the Genocide, were forced into exile again, for a second time within 100 years. Armenia and Armenian communities everywhere opened their hearts and homes to the Syrian Armenians, most of whom had lost everything.

This latest offensive by Turkey has rattled us once again. When the perpetrator of our calamitous loss is granted permission to secure “safe zones” – the depressingly-ironic Orwellian term itself is chilling – by removing the majority Kurdish population of northeastern Syria from their ancestral homeland, it strikes a deep nerve in a still-open wound that sets off alarms in our consciousness.

The deeply-rooted generational trauma that silently seeps through our veins is not something we acknowledge or confront on a daily basis. We carry on with our lives, we raise families, we build careers, we travel the world and we try and create a new Armenia wherever we go. For those of us in the Republic of Armenia, this very small piece of the homeland that has survived, we work hard to rebuild, to recreate, to innovate and, by doing so, honor the memory of everything and everyone that was taken from us.