MURPHY: ABANDONING THE KURDS IN SYRIA IS A NATIONAL SECURITY & MORAL NIGHTMARE

HARTFORD—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, on Thursday held a press conference with members of the Syrian Kurdish community in Connecticut and legal experts to discuss the president’s reckless foreign policy decisions that greenlighted Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria. Murphy was joined by Azad Hamoto, Kate Dischino, and Will Kneerim.

Earlier this week, Murphy and U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called on the president to reconsider his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and open the door for Turkey to attack, calling it a victory for Assad, Russia, Iran, and ISIS. On Wednesday, Murphy released a statement after it was reported that Turkey launched an offensive against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria.

Murphy said: “We could not have defeated the ISIS caliphate without Kurdish fighters. They were on the front lines taking the heaviest casualties, losing the highest number of soldiers. We asked the Kurds to do the fighting for us and in exchange, we made it clear that we would protect our Kurdish partners when the day came that Turkey decided to move in on northeastern Syria.”

“It is unthinkable to me that the President of the United States decided to double-cross the Kurds, promising them that we get their back and then as soon as the heat got turned up, abandon them, leaving them to slaughter by the Turks. But that is what's happening today. And though this is happening on the other side of the world, there is deep impact here in Connecticut,” Murphy continued.

Murphy said: “This is the president's decision as to where to position troops. Congress can't pass a law requiring troops to be put back into Syria—that is a basic foreign policy function of the Executive Branch. Congress could contemplate passing sanctions against Turkey, but that won’t save the Kurds.”

Full transcript of Murphy’s opening remarks below:

“Welcome, everyone. Good morning. Thank you very much for joining us here today. My name is Chris Murphy. I have the honor of representing Connecticut in the United States Senate. And I am joined here today by several individuals who are going to speak on behalf of themselves or their organization with respect to the humanitarian crisis that is gripping northeastern Syria, literally as we speak. And the point of our event today is to really drive home the impacts on Connecticut, and to provide some avenues for people in Connecticut as to how they can help as they watch this nightmare unfold on their TV's every night.

“For the last several years, the United States has partnered with Kurdish fighters in Syria in order to fight ISIS, a brutal terrorist organization that threatens the United States and our allies. We could not have defeated the ISIS caliphate without Kurdish fighters. They were on the front lines taking the heaviest casualties, losing the highest number of soldiers. We asked the Kurds to do the fighting for us and in exchange, we made it clear that we would protect our Kurdish partners when the day came that Turkey decided to move in on northeastern Syria.

“We knew that Turkey wasn't happy with our decision to enlist Kurdish fighters in the battle against ISIS. There is a large Kurdish minority inside Turkey; the current leader of Turkey, Erdogan, has been attempting to repress and oppress the Kurdish minority for years. And he fears that if the Kurds get more political power in Syria, that will give that minority group more political power inside Turkey. And so Erdogan has been clear for years that he doesn't want a Kurdish political state of any kind inside Syria. And that's why we made it clear to the Kurds that we would get their back that we would protect them if the day came, that Erdogan crossed the border into Syria.

“It is unthinkable to me that the President of the United States decided to double-cross the Kurds, promising them that we get their back and then as soon as the heat got turned up, abandon them, leaving them to slaughter by the Turks. But that is what's happening today. And though this is happening on the other side of the world, there is deep impact here in Connecticut. We have thousands of Kurdish Americans here in Connecticut. Zozan is an intern in my office in my office right here in Connecticut, came here from Syria, a Kurdish immigrant to the United States. You'll hear in a moment from Azad Hamoto, who will talk about his experience as a Kurd coming to Connecticut, and the stories that he hears from those that were left behind.

“And I want to talk about the three nightmares that have been created by President Trump's decision to abandon our Kurdish partners inside Syria. The first is a practical nightmare. No one in the Middle East is ever going to partner with the United States again, after what we have done to the Kurds in Syria. There's a story in the New York Times, just in the last 24 hours, about how Israel is rethinking whether it can rely on the United States now, having watched what we have done to the Kurds. As we try to fight terrorism throughout the Middle East, we rely on partners, we need groups to work with us. No one's going to work with us now, because we don't keep our promises.

“Second, ISIS is going to be the beneficiary of this American abandonment of the Kurds. There are 10,000 ISIS fighters in prisons today, there's absolutely no way to guarantee the security of those prisoners as battles erupt around these detention centers. Turkey says that they will try to hang on to some of the prisoners, they'll send others back to their home countries, but there's no way that in the chaos and confusion of a war between the Kurds and the Turks, that you can guarantee that these Syrian fighters won't be let loose. There are 10,000 prisoners and there's 10-20,000 ISIS fighters between Iraq and Syria that are gaining strength, who would welcome these detainees to join back up with them. ISIS is not defeated and these prisoners who could be let loose soon will strengthen their ranks. Also, the fighting has stopped against ISIS, ISIS isn’t defeated in Syria. But now that we have abandoned the Kurds and their military unit, the [SDF], the fighting has ended against ISIS is free to grow and to gain strength, now that the Kurds will be focused on protecting themselves against Turkey.

“And then lastly, there already is a humanitarian catastrophe happening throughout Syria, but it will get immeasurably worse, over the coming days and weeks. Just since Wednesday 60,000 Kurds have fled their homes and are now seeking refuge somewhere outside of the conflict zone. Think of that: 60,000 people have left their homes just in 24 hours.

“And the United States shows no signs of doing anything to help these refugees that are fleeing northeastern Syria. Historically, we have let in about 100,000 refugees into this country on a yearly basis, many of them from Syria, and war-torn areas of the Middle East. The president has effectively ended the U.S. Refugee Program. He has cut down this year the number of refugees that we will take to 18,000—meaning that the U.S. policy now is to create a killing zone inside northeast Syria and then lock the victims of that humanitarian disaster in place, because we will not let them come as refugees to the United States.

“So this is a nightmare on all fronts. It's a national security nightmare for the United States. It means no one will partner with us ever again in the Middle East, it means that ISIS will get stronger. But it's a moral nightmare as well. It's unconscionable that the United States is inviting Turkey into Syria and allowing the suffering to increase and increase and increase.

“Now I'd be happy to talk a little bit more, perhaps some questions about what the United States can do, but there is a real limit to what Congress can do here. This is the president's decision as to where to position troops. Congress can't pass a law requiring troops to be put back into Syria—that is a basic foreign policy function of the Executive Branch. Congress could contemplate passing sanctions against Turkey, but that won’t save the Kurds. That will be far, far too late.

“What Congress can do is increase the number of refugees that are taken in the United States, we can allot hundreds of millions of new dollars to humanitarian programs in the region, and Republicans can use the massive leverage that they have today over President Trump to try to get him to change his mind. It is not too late for the President to take a hard line with Turkey. And only Republicans right now have the ability to press the president to do that. As we speak, Republicans are protecting the president from impeachment. They have a lot of leverage over him. They could use some of that leverage to get him to do the right thing in northeastern Syria. And I hope that they will take that tack in the coming days.

“So with that, let me present a few of our speakers, I will just list them off and then they can come up in this order. First, speaking on behalf of the Kurdish American population here in Connecticut will be Azad Hamoto. Then the Vice President of emergency programs in AmeriCares, the group that is actively involved in Syria today, Kate Dischino. Then the Director of Employment and Education Services at Iris Wishes, the New Haven based refugee resettlement program here in Connecticut, Will Kneerim. We'll continue on. So Azad please.”

###