Kurds in Mortal Danger
The situation in Syria, including Kobane, where our projects are running (bakery, Hospitainer, church, etc.), is coming to a head and there is a threat of a massacre of the Kurds, similar to that carried out by ISIS terrorists in 2014 against the Yazidis in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq.
The devout Christians with Muslim backgrounds whom ACP helped to build the church in Raqqa had to flee Raqqa in a hurry because the Syrian government under Al-Sharah released hundreds of ISIS terrorists. (As a reminder, Al-Sharah is a “former” terrorist with a lot of blood on his hands.) Videos are circulating of Islamists under Al-Sharah's command kidnapping young Kurdish women. These girls face the worst. Our people in Kobane are in fear of what may come.
The battle for Hasakeh, the capital of the Kurdish region of Rojava, is currently raging. Rojava is a functioning model of Kurdish self-government. The new Syrian state after Assad's departure also wants to prevent this model, because for ISIS, Rojava is the number one ideological enemy: the Kurdish region embodies secularism, women's equality, and religious diversity—three no-gos for Islamists!
The Kurds have wisely not laid down their arms, otherwise they would have been dead long ago. They have learned that Islamists are not trustworthy negotiating partners. Thousands of ISIS terrorists are imprisoned in Hasakeh, seeking revenge on the Kurds. It is unimaginable what would happen if Hasakeh fell and the imprisoned terrorists were released!
Since the US has completely withdrawn from Syria, all protection for the Kurdish population has disappeared. And neighboring Turkey has no interest in an autonomous Kurdish state near its border. The Turkish government fears that the idea of autonomy will spread to the Kurdish peoples in its own country – in other words, no precedent for the Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
Once again, the Kurds are under pressure, and this time it is a matter of life and death. Mazloum Abdi, general of the Kurdish armed forces, calls on the world not to forget the Kurds in Syria.
