Dear President Trump,
We at Jewish World Watch, a human rights organization devoted to fighting genocide and mass atrocities, are writing to express our extreme concern in regard to your announcement on Sunday that you will be withdrawing United States troops from the Syrian border with Turkey.
We strongly fear that a withdrawal will open the door to a potential mass atrocity situation targeting the United States’ longtime allies, the Syrian Kurds. We beseech you to listen to experts at the Pentagon and State Department and reconsider this decision, as it risks the advent of a genocidal campaign by the Turkish army against the Kurdish population of Northern Syria.
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As a Jewish organization, our history in the Holocaust compels us to speak out and not stand idly by in the face of any situation where whole populations are targeted simply because of who they are or what they believe. We have been concerned about this potential situation since February, when your administration initially spoke of a U.S. exit from Syria. Turkey has a long history of labeling the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as terrorists and engaging in a campaign of demonizing the entire Kurdish population in order to set the framework for an operation that would clear the minority group from the Turkish border region.
Syrian Kurds, as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, have been Washington’s staunchest allies in our nation’s fight against ISIS, and they have fought alongside our troops in the belief that the United States would provide them protection and mediate a political solution with Turkey in exchange for their years of tireless assistance in fighting the Caliphate. Abandoning the YPG would give Turkey free rein over the territory and likely spell disaster for one of our nation’s most reliable partners in Syria.
Circumventing the imminent threat against the Kurds is not only our moral responsibility, it is our legal responsibility. Under international law, the United States has a duty to prevent a potential mass atrocity situation from unfolding. If Turkey were to take this withdrawal as an opportunity to attack the Kurds — potentially to annihilate the Kurdish population of Syria that until now has relied on assurances that we would protect them — the United States would be complicit in the results.
A U.S. troop withdrawal also threatens the already tenuous regional security and jeopardizes the fight against ISIS. The Syrian Defense Forces have been pulling fighters from guarding captured ISIS prisoners and sending them toward the Syrian-Turkish border in anticipation of Turkey’s threatened incursion, effectively unraveling some of the much-needed security that had been forestalling the return of ISIS. The United States’ abrupt exit from Syria could also encourage the reawakening of ISIS’s sleeper cells and create a vacuum that ISIS would readily exploit. Further, if our allegiance to our allies can change so quickly, what future do we have with prospective allies when they are needed?
Perhaps most important, our troops’ departure poses a severe threat to the 2 million civilians remaining in northeast Syria, likely displacing at least 300,000 people from the outset and disrupting vital lifesaving humanitarian services.
Mr. President, on behalf of American Jews compelled by the post-Holocaust promise of “never again,” we remain committed to preventing genocide. We implore you to consider the potential mass atrocity, regional security, and humanitarian dimensions of your decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the Turkish-Syrian border. Millions of lives hang in the balance.
Please reverse your decision to withdraw our troops before it is too late.
Signed,
Susan Freudenheim
Executive Director
Ann Strimov Durbin
Director of Advocacy and Grantmaking
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