Female Kurdish fighters train in Syria. Yahoo/Reuters
Syrian Kurds are trying to gain support from Western powers in their fight against ISIS. Yahoo/Reuters. The Syrian Kurds have been instrumental in the fight against ISIS in Syria but there are concerns about their relationship with Assad and the government of Syria, who they are accused of helping on occasion at the expense of the Free Syrian Army. Turkey is also concerned due to possible support for Kurdish minorities in their country. However, western ties to the Syrian Kurds have increased since their dramatic cross-border rescue of thousands of Yazidi refugees in Iraq. Iraqi Kurds have received support from western powers, including airstrikes and arms sales, but Syrian Kurds have been left with next to nothing. If the Syrian Kurds were to work with the FSA in Aleppo, the western powers might look more favorably to arming and assisting them.
My Comment:
I say arm the Kurds. Out of all the factions fighting against ISIS they are the best fighters and the least morally ambiguous out of any of them. Of course I think we should be working with any group that is fighting against ISIS, including such otherwise undesirable partners like Syria, Iran and various militia groups. They are that big of a threat. The only people we shouldn't help that are currently fighting ISIS are Al-Qaeda aligned groups, like the Al-Nursa front.
As for Turkey's concerns, they need to but out of the situation. I know that the Turks have had their problems with their own Kurds, but I'm not inclined to be very sympathetic to them. I barely tolerate the existence of Turkey in the best of times, but their governments behavior in the Syrian conflict has not been helpful. I know they are a NATO ally but they could be doing more to fight ISIS and could slow the flow of weapons and jihadists over their border with Syria. Quite frankly, I trust the Kurds way more then I trust Turkey.
Full disclosure time, I'm partially ethnically Greek, so I am fairly biased against a government that denies the Greek genocide. I know that the current government had nothing to do with it, but they do deny it, which is pretty reprehensible in my book. My great grandfather came to America right around the same time as that event. I'm still trying to piece together the history of my family, but there is a very good chance that he came here to avoid being killed. At the very least the Ottomans were killing people like my great grandfather in the same general area. My great-grandfather was living on the island of Samos, which is right off of the coast of Turkey, so at the very least it was probably in the back of his mind when he emigrated. Anyways, keep in mind that I have my own hang ups about Turkey, so if you are looking for an unbiased perspective on them look elsewhere.
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