Winnipeg, Jan. 23, 2018: The local Kurdish community rallied at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in solidarity with Kurds under Turkish attack in Afrin, Syria. Photo: Paul S. Graham
According to a January 23, 2018 story from Reuters, Turkey has killed at least 260 Syrian Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants in its four-day-old offensive into the Kurdish-dominated Afrin region of northwest Syria.
The target of Turkey’s attack is the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, also known as the YPG, who are based in Afrin, though the offensive is expected to widen in the days ahead.
Because the YPG has been armed by the United States to repel attacks by ISIS, one might wonder why Turkey, also an ally of the United States, would attack them. To make a long story short, and possibly to over-simplify it, the Turkish government views the Kurds as enemies because of an almost century long bid by Kurds in the region for a national homeland.
In Winnipeg, the local Kurdish community rallied today at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Many are recent immigrants and they fear for the lives of family and friends in the path of the Turkish offensive.
Paul S. Graham 