American Steps To Divide Syria

America is taking careful and programmatic steps to divide Syria, including:

1. Prolonging the Syrian crisis until everyone agrees to the division of Syria, without a care for the sons of Syria who are being killed and dying;

2. Allowing Iran and its militias to sow chaos, obstructing the Syrian people's revolution, and giving Iran a share of the political and security division of Syria. Not only does this not threaten the Israeli state, but guarantees the division of Syria and once again protects Israel regardless of statements to the contrary;

3. Creating problems and controversies for countries in the region that oppose the division of Syria in order to weaken their political, strategic, and military capabilities, especially between the Gulf states that support the revolution and the Syrian opposition. Further, the United States exploits disputes between the states that support the revolution, Turkey, and Iran, to hinder their efforts and distract them with each other and their own problems. This is in addition to fabricating problems with the American administration so America can be free from moral and political responsibility toward the Syrian people and toward states that are concerned with their well being;

4. Using local forces and militias to further the division of Syria and Iraq, including the Kurdish Workers’ Party and its affiliates in Syria, such as the Democratic Union Party, the People's Protection Forces, Democratic Syria forces and others; and

5. Creating international tension, such as the American-Russian dispute, the sanctions imposed on Russia, American disputes with several European states, and the most recent American sanctions against the Russian gas project to Europe, which threatens Europe's energy security.

These are just some of the steps the American administration has taken to divide Syria. America did not necessarily plan to create these problems originally, but rather America decided to exploit events to further its goal of politically dividing the region and completely subjecting it to American hegemony. America did not create, manage, or plan the Syrian revolution, but America attempted to exploit the revolution from every side, including elements of the popular revolution, Iran, and Assad’s army. Further, America involved Russia militarily in order to ensure that the situation, which is leading to the division of Syria, does not get out of hand. Then, America put restrictions on arming the Syrian revolution and restricted the capabilities of the weapons that would be provided, limiting the revolution's ability to overthrow the regime. And, just when it seemed likely that the Syrian revolution was at the tipping point and on the verge of overthrowing Assad, America stipulated that Assad would only be removed via an international conference in Geneva on the pretext that otherwise, the situation in Syria would get out of hand and that political transition requires supervision.

However, America did not use the Geneva conference to create a Syria that the Syrian people wanted, but instead created a Syria commensurate with American desires. Nor did America create a Syria that the international states supportive of the revolution wanted, or that Turkey, which is entrusted with Syria's border and is a friend to Syria, wanted. Instead, in order to counter the efforts of the Gulf states and Turkey to break free from American and Israeli control, America used Geneva to create a Syria that is estranged from its Arab neighbors and is a threat to the Turkish state. America then provided the Kurdish Popular Protection Forces with all kinds of advanced and heavy military equipment, enabling them to ethnically cleanse Arabs and Turkomen. Moreover, this equipment enabled Kurdish forces to control most of the water resources in northern Syria. America is using these militias to facilitate the division of Syria at the expense of the Syrian people, whom America prevented from being meaningfully armed and equipped, and at the expense of both Arab and Turkish national security.

Indeed, the PYD/PKK was able to gain control of the three biggest dams in Syria and nearly 23 percent of Syrian territory through the advanced military support provided by the United States of America.* PYD/PKK fighters now control nearly 39,500 square kilometers (approximately 15,251 square miles) of the approximately 185,000 square kilometers (approximately 71,429 square miles) in all of Syria. Further, through American support, the PYD/PKK has gained control over the three biggest dams in the country: the Euphrates Dam, the Bath Dam in western Raqqa, and the Tashreen Dam in eastern Aleppo. These dams provide nearly 70 percent of the country's electricity and water irrigation needs; even the Syrian regime's National Bank and Irrigation Ministry buildings depend on these dams. Indeed, the PYD/PKK has not only used the support of the United States to capture the regions containing the dams, but has also used the support to take over vital agricultural areas, including vast agricultural lands that stretch from the East of Aleppo (in the north of Syria) to the the east of the country along the Iraqi border. This is in addition to the water that is stored in the three aforementioned dams and the agricultural land that lies in the region of the "Syrian Island" equaling nearly 30,000 square kilometers (approximately 11,583 square miles) and 80 percent of the "Syrian Island's" total land area.

Moreover, several media sources have noted that American intelligence services are using underhanded policies to provoke conflict between the groups of the Free Syrian Army in the regions that were liberated by operation "Armor of the Euphrates" in northern Syria in order to frustrate the efforts of the Turkish armed forces there. These sources believe that the goal of these policies is to frustrate the current cooperation between the Turkish armed forces and the Free Syrian Army. In addition, according to the same sources, after all obstacles were removed for the militias of the Democratic Union Party or PYD to control the area, the Pentagon, in cooperation with the CIA, incited further conflict in the north to destabilize the region and stymie the efforts of the Turkish armed forces that have lost more than 71 soldiers already. In addition, American instigations aim to harass Turkish forces to force their withdrawal and allow the militias of the Democratic Union Party to gain control of the region.

Simultaneously, an Interpol report that came out this month, June, said that the PKK conducted a series of attacks against Turkish organizations, cultural centers, and property in a number of European Union states throughout last year. The report considered the "State of Terrorism in Europe in 2017" by examining terrorist incidents that occurred in the European Union throughout 2016. The report noted that five hand grenade attacks targeted Turkish government buildings and Turkish organizations in France. Also, several attacks occurred against similar targets in Belgium, including acts of arson and attacks using explosive materials. Further, several incidents occurred in Germany, most of which took place during competing protests opposing and supporting the PKK, where Turkish property was destroyed with incendiary material, with one of the attacks causing at least 1 million euros in damage. Meanwhile, the PKK continues to be active in Europe collecting donations, advertising and recruiting members in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Romania and Switzerland. The report estimated that in France alone, the organization collected approximately 5.3 million euros in 2016.

Moreover, America has created a political and diplomatic crisis with Turkey by issuing a legal injunction to detain several members of President Recip Tayip Erdogan's security team due to events that occurred during the Turkish president's recent trip to America. The Turkish foreign ministry has submitted a petition to American Ambassador John Bass in Ankara protesting the legal decision in the United States that ordered the detention of the security personnel. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in an announcement on June 15 that "the decision of the American authorities is wrong and biased, and lacks a legal basis." The ministry explained that "the skirmishes that occurred in front of the Turkish embassy in Washington during Erdogan's recent visit to the United States were due to the failure of the local security forces to make the necessary and normal preparations for a high level visit of that nature." Further, the ministry stated that it informed the U.S. ambassador that he cannot blame Turkish citizens for what happened in front of the embassy in light of the inadequate American security measures, and because American authorities allowed the Kurdish Workers’ Party protesters to approach the Turkish embassy while they were carrying flags and symbols of a terrorist organization, because no steps are being taken against the American security men who attacked the security personnel of the Turkish foreign minister, Moulood Jayweesh Euglou, in front of the embassy during that visit and finally because supporters of the PKK attacked Turkish citizens while the American police did not take sufficient steps to prevent the two sides from clashing. Nevertheless, the American administration continued to provoke tensions with the Turkish government by issuing a decision to detain 12 members of Erdogan's security team.

This is merely an introduction to how America has intentionally provoked Turkey in order to create tension. Then America exploits these tensions in order to force the division of Syria and partition it among terrorist groups. This is in accordance with American designs which are forced upon the Arab and Gulf states and Turkey. Likewise, these designs are forced upon states not interested in submitting to American projects and initiatives to solve their problems. These countries would rather work together on their own to solve their problems without foreign intervention and especially without American intervention, which continuously seeks to exploit these problems in promotion of American interests. As such, America does not really intend to completely solve these problems whether they be Syrian, Gulfi, Russian, European or Turkish.

*Editor’s note: The Kurdish Workers’ Party or PKK, is a left-wing organization based in Turkey and Iraq. The Democratic Union Party (Syria0, or PYD, is a Kurdish democratic confederalist political party in northern Syria.