#james and louisa murder drones | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bloodinhershoesrpg · 8 years ago

Photo

Congratulations Lia, you have been accepted for the role of Elijah Granville! In all honesty, without trying to falsely flatter you, I would have handed both of my sweet summer children you have applied for to you with pleasure and a kiss as both applications captured them wonderfully. But, alas, as you asked to only be accepted for one of them, Elijah felt ever so slightly more refined to me, with your writing drawing me in to an extent that I found myself snorting aloud to his remarks which I reckon might just be the very essence of bringing a character to life! I’m ecstatic to have you join us as everyone’s favourite poison garden owner! Please send in your account with 24 hours and have a look at the checklist before you do!

REGARDING YOURSELF

Name / Age / Pronouns: Lia, 21+, GMT Activity: Honestly, a lot of my time at the minute is taken up with the investigation into Katerina’s murder, so I’d put myself at about a 6 if I am accepted and get a spy on the ground. 8 once I realise I’m the murderer. Realistically I’ve been quite sluggish with activity online lately because of my fulltime job and being ill, but am hopeful such obstacles will calm themselves from this point on. Additional: If I am to be accepted for any I’d like to just be accepted for one at this stage (restrain me in future). Thank you.

REGARDING THE STAR OF YOUR SHOW

Character name and faceclaim: Elijah Granville, Theo James

CHARACTER DISSECTION

Picture a man with effortless access to all of the luxuries and comforts this world can offer. Picture that man devoid of nurturing elders and lessons in morality. If that man were to look in the mirror he’d recognise himself as Elijah Granville, profess himself as a god among mere mortals. It’s not because he’s truly that arrogant, but because he doesn’t know any better, doesn’t care enough to look and see. Maybe if his parents had been warmer, the staff that raised him more forceful and less subservient, peers more varied in circumstance, maybe then he could have been better. Only now he believes he is the best. There is nothing he wants for, or knows well enough to realise he is lacking, and there’s certainly not enough passion in his heart to stir and crave a different path. For everything he is; he is nothing, vapour, coasting through life with momentary flickers of association to other humans, to his own heart. Utterly numb to the beauty of art and people, mechanic in the taking of all that is named sinful, named debauched, sedated to the buzz. Poison from an errant tongue coiling slowly around the mind.

Arm outstretched along the line of the chair, a tumbler of whiskey settled to the side of it, some gauchely pretty young blonde in the seat to his left. The usual appearance of Elijah Granville as he seems to encompass the entire box reserved solely for his use. Even the way his eyes practically glaze over as they roam the stage for appearance’s sake, all too familiar. The blonde makes the mistake of speaking, of assuming that is her use. Some pathetic wonder expressed at the dancer’s, a quick admission of insecurity. “You’re right, darling, you could never look so graceful.” It’s unusual for him to respond to such futility, preying for his attention, but the bite of the words are enough to humour him for just a moment. He thinks so litte of those on the stage that her dismissal as even lesser seems a stunning indignity, punishment that she has opened her mouth in a way that doesn’t service him. Maria, or Louisa, or Emilia, settles back in her chair, deflated against the velvet. It is then, just after he strikes, that he moves. Forcing her to follow suit by expectation. Only when she has risen does he shake his head. No, no. “Stay here. You have lessons to learn, do you not.” The experience is surely soured for her, but he makes no note of it, is not intentionally cruel as he leaves her to stew alone. Leisurely strides have him backstage within moments, unfazed as he walks a straight path so all those buzzing in their hurry have to move around him. A figure he briefly acknowledges as familiar, a queen in the hive, steps out of his way, no notion to question him. He pushes open a fire escape and steps outdoors. There are no bodies to deal with, no smokers attempting pleasantries. His goal accomplished, to avoid the droning tones of theatregoers and the effort to cover his distaste. There’s very little he denies himself, but a line is still drawn at smoking indoors. More for the way they’ll surely bump up the cost of smoke damage or refunded tickets for alarms blaring, than for respect of the theatre. Architecture perhaps one allowance in its beauty, he holds too much venom for the funds the theatre siphons from him to recognise any attribute. Handrolled filters greet him in a sterling silver case, less pretentious than one might imagine, given how bashed and nicked the case truly is. A questionable hand-me-down from his grandfather when he was a boy, the picture of magnanimity at some fundraiser or another, a story regaled by the presses who happened upon the scene. He taps the cigarette against the lid of the box, allowing any stray tobacco to fall, or perhaps just for the habit of it when the cigarettes always look immaculate and machine pressed instead of forged by his hand. Just as he’s raising it to his lips, calamity strikes. “I’m sorry, you’re not supposed to..” Owlish features turn on the woman, and she steps back in response. Theatrically he settles the cigarette back in place, “Do finish that sentence.” Finally some real entertainment. Except she seems frozen in place, all too aware of her error at this point. “You’re not.. You can’t.” A scoff as he clicks the case shut, lest he drop them all on the ground and force her to her hands and knees. Unless you’re new here is on the tip of his tongue, but it seems too much an excuse, a kindness. “I can and I will. And I am.” he doesn’t stoop, doesn’t press forward, and yet the intensity of his words force a closeness and presume an attack. “Now shut the door and wait right there until I knock.” “I’ve got work..” “Yes, you have got work in making up for your ignorance. So hush now, let’s not fall out. I wont repeat myself” He doesn’t need to, for she closes the fire exit in front of her. He’s not one for grudges, not at all, so he finishes his cigarette, watches the smoke plume into the night sky, a far better dancer than inside the building, and doesn’t linger further. Knocks against the door to be let inside. A mistake to let him in, if ever there was one.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Norah Monroe: If it irks him to have any dealings with the theatre at all, it bothers him all the more to have a face to put to it. Someone with the belief they are charming him, or guiding him, or offering anything at all. A meek little butterfly fluttering about anxiously with her placations, her assurances as to why this is a good investment- when it’s not. The worst part of it is the mask he has to wear, the near neutrality stretched across features, and blunting down of words so that he might sound reasonable, disaffected, instead of bored and frustrated and essentially tired of the whole affair. Even offended that a woman such as she gets to go home and pat herself on the back, presuming to have quelled the beast. She’s done nothing for him, as obsolete as the rest of the staff. And yet he supposes it’s better to have an unwitting adversary believe themselves in control. All the better to watch their eventual fall on the most holy day he can rid himself of them all, watch the demise of an intolerable legacy.

Raúl Mendoza: For whatever reason people oft assume you peers. As though grandeur and political aspirations go hand in hand. Somehow, at theatre functions Elijah is requited to attend, he will find himself pointed in the direction of the man, with prompt introduction before the guide takes their leave. There’s very little for you to talk about, very little interest held in politics or the theories behind them. Yet you allow a convenient amount of time to pass, pleasantries exchanged, because at least the man is an intellectual. Not much of one, considering his profession, but still a better option than the dull and frantic attempts at charm from the artists.

REGARDING YOUR INSPIRATION

Unfortunately I have nothing available for this section at this time (except one shoddy multi-char edit)

#accepted #accepted:elijah

1 note · View note

bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

Text

U.S. military is taking custody of two British men accused of involvement in Islamic State killings of American hostages

By Ellen Nakashima, Souad Mekhennet, Rachel Weiner and Missy Ryan | Published October 09, 2019 6:42 PM ET | Posted October 9, 2019 7:15 PM ET |

The U.S. military is taking custody of several dozen high-value Islamic State detainees, including two British men accused of involvement in the militant group’s summary executions of American and other Western hostages. The action is designed to prevent their escape or release from camps in Syria, where they have been guarded by Kurdish forces now under threat from Turkey’s incursion, according to U.S. officials.

The move, a rare instance in which the United States has taken direct responsibility for Islamic State prisoners in Iraq and Syria, comes as U.S. officials scramble to ensure that Ankara’s unfolding military operation does not permit the Islamic State to regain strength.

The roughly 40 individuals being taken into U.S. custody, all considered important Islamic State figures, previously had been held in a constellation of small prisons in northeast Syria, run by Syrian Kurdish forces who have been the Pentagon’s primary partner against the Islamic State in Syria. The Kurds are now pulling guards from those facilities to confront the unfolding Turkish assault.

The British pair — part of a group of four British militants dubbed the “Beatles” by their hostages — were being detained with the goal of putting them on trial in the United States, said a senior U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. That official said the two men — Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh — had been taken to Iraq; other officials said recent administration discussions about the fate of those prisoners had examined the possibility of bringing them to Iraq. It was not clear whether that had occurred or whether they had been taken somewhere else.

“We are taking some of the most dangerous ISIS fighters out,” President Trump said at the White House on Wednesday, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “We are taking them out and putting them in different locations, where it’s secure. . . . We have a certain number of ISIS fighters that are particularly bad, and we wanted to make sure that nothing happened with them in respect to getting out.”

A criminal prosecution in the United States rests on the ability to obtain evidence from British authorities — a matter being litigated in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. In recent days, Attorney General William P. Barr asked Trump to make securing the detention of the two men a “priority” so they could be eventually prosecuted in the United States, and the president “immediately agreed,” according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The British men are accused of involvement in the beheading of Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig as well as other Western hostages.

The Turkish attack on Kurdish forces raised concerns about the ability of the Kurds to maintain control over thousands of Islamic State detainees, as well as tens of thousands of women and children housed in separate camps, some of which are militant supporters.

“This is like a victory for the ISIS fighters. I just think it’s appalling,” said Diane Foley, James Foley’s mother. “It’s an abdication of our responsibility to ensure safety for our own citizens and allies.”

Officials have said that the U.S. military had orders not to intervene if the Kurds abandoned detention facilities to press all of their troops into the fight with Turkey. That position appears to be changing now as the military takes custody of a small portion of those detainees, suggesting the Pentagon is revising its plans amid a fast-moving situation.

“We now face the very real prospect of 10,000 ISIS prisoners rejoining the battlefield,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D.-N.H.) said in a statement Wednesday.

Mohammed Emwazi, the man who killed Foley, Sotloff, Kassig and other hostages in 2014, was killed in a drone strike the following year. A fourth American, Kayla Mueller, was killed while being held hostage by the Islamic State, but the exact cause of her death was not confirmed.

Kotey and Elsheikh had been in custody of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Their potential transfer to the United States for trial has been delayed by Elsheikh’s mother, Maha Elgizouli, who has challenged the British government’s decision not to prosecute her son in Britain. She also has sued the British government to block any evidence-sharing with U.S. prosecutors without legal assurance that her son will not be executed.

“Mrs. Elgizouli is solely concerned to protect her son from the death penalty,” attorney Edward Fitzgerald said in a July hearing before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. “She recognizes that they should face justice. . . . But she submits that they should face justice in this country.”

But British authorities for years have said they would prefer to see the two charged in the United States.

Prosecutors in the United States would seek to convict Kotey and Elsheikh as conspirators in hostage-taking resulting in death, a charge that carries a potential death sentence, according to U.S. officials.

In an interview this summer, Kotey and Elsheikh denied involvement in any murders, saying they only facilitated ransom negotiations. Both men agreed to speak to The Washington Post, and Kurdish security officials facilitated separate interviews at a facility in Rmeilan, Syria.

Their role, both said, was to ask prisoners for contact information and personal details for “proof of life.” Kotey recalled having prisoners hold up signs urging their governments and families to “be quick or they will be kill me.”

At one point, Kotey said, a Syrian prisoner was shot in the back of the head in front of the European prisoners, who were made to hold signs saying they wanted to avoid a similar fate.

The British and American hostages were not included in that video, he said, because their governments were not negotiating.

“They were not pampered,” Elsheikh said. “The treatment had to be harsh to keep them in the state of mind” of compliance. “The prisoners had to be kept always under pressure.”

He said the harsh treatment included headlocks, punches and stress positions. But he denied any involvement in mock executions or waterboarding.

Kotey said he saw Emwazi, better known as “Jihadi John,” beat prisoners and threaten to waterboard them “as if he had previously” done so. He said Emwazi saw the killing of journalists and aid workers as warranted because they had “come to interfere in our internal affairs.”

Both Kotey and Elsheikh claim they were no longer working with Emwazi when the killing of hostages began. But they say they were among a very small group of Islamic State members who knew Emwazi’s true identity, first reported in The Washington Post in early 2015.

A decision is expected in the coming weeks from the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on whether the British government’s offer to share evidence on Elsheikh and Kotey, absent a promise from the United States that the men will not face the death penalty, violates British law.

Toby Cadman, a British lawyer representing Diane Foley, said he also worries that moving the prisoners around could create new opportunities for the defendants’ families to delay a prosecution.

“The last thing anyone wants is for the process to be . . . fudged in order to get them before a court that they can then challenge,” he said. “You want these people lawfully handed over.”

A fourth “Beatle,” Aine Davis, was convicted in Turkey of membership in a terrorist organization and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Mekhennet reported from Rmeilan, Syria. Khabbat Abbas and Louisa Loveluck in Rmeilan contributed to this report.

Pentagon won’t take over Islamic State prisons if U.S.-allied Kurdish forces withdraw, officials say

By Missy Ryan and Liz Sly | Published

October 08 at 10:55 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 9, 2019 7:20 PM ET |

The U.S. military has no plans to intervene if Syrian Kurdish forces abandon a constellation of Islamic State prisons in Syria to confront a possible Turkish invasion, officials said Tuesday.

Kurdish officials said that guards were still in place at the more than 20 prisons and camps under their control but were prepared to move, raising the possibility that about 11,000 militants and their families could escape.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the evolving U.S. strategy in Syria, said the Pentagon did not have enough forces to oversee the prisons if those facilities were left unguarded, nor a mandate to do so.

The Trump administration has said that the responsibility for the militants detained by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the main U.S. partner against the Islamic State in Syria, would fall to the Turkish government if it goes ahead with the incursion.

The potential for a battle between two American allies in Syria has intensified the Trump administration’s struggle to find a solution for the detainees and about 70,000 displaced women and children housed in separate camps, some of whom are militant supporters.

The White House highlighted the risks surrounding Islamic State detainees this week as President Trump announced that a small contingent of U.S. forces positioned along Syria’s northern border would be relocated, a precautionary move ahead of the expected Turkish offensive. Turkey considers the Kurdish forces to be terrorists.

Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, reiterated the administration’s warnings Tuesday, saying Turkey could be “responsible for freeing thousands of ISIS fighters” if it invaded.

The offensive has turned one of the Trump administration’s biggest long-term challenges in Syria — the lack of an international consensus on what to do with the remnants of the Islamic State — into a near-term one.

For the past year, U.S. officials have been pushing other countries, with little success, to repatriate their citizens who were captured fighting for the Islamic State. In addition to fears about possible prison breaks, military commanders have said a new generation of extremists could emerge among the thousands of children being reared under bleak conditions at the camps.

Even before news emerged of an imminent Turkish offensive, a senior Pentagon official acknowledged the impasse the administration had reached.

“There does have to be a Plan B of what comes next,” Mick Mulroy, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said last week during remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations. “I can’t declare what that is today because, quite frankly, we haven’t developed it entirely.”

It’s unclear whether the U.S. military would change course if the SDF’s response to a large-scale operation were to result in a major prison break. Officials said at least some senior militants are now being held in Iraq, under more stable conditions.

Analysts have also questioned whether the SDF would follow through with its threat to withdraw guards at the prisons, if only because nearby Kurdish communities would be the first targets of any escaping militants.

The Kurds recognize that “the prisoners are their only bargaining chip for keeping the Americans there,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, who specializes in extremism and visited a camp for the relatives of militants last week.

SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said many Kurdish fighters would feel compelled to protect their families if Turkey invaded northeast Syria, which is home to most of the Kurdish population.

Even before this week’s announcement, Kurdish officials said tensions in the detention facilities had increased since the release of an audio recording last month that purportedly featured Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urging fighters to carry out attacks and free detainees from prisons and camps in Iraq and Syria.

“The camps and detention facilities are a time bomb. We can guard them, but in areas where we have weak security it may become easier for Daesh to reorganize itself,” Gabriel said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.

The militant detainees are being held in an assortment of overcrowded “pop-up” prisons, often schools or government offices without beds or mattresses.

Of the more than 11,000 prisoners, about 2,000 are from more than 40 countries, most of which refuse to take them back. The remainder are from Syria and Iraq.

The majority of the prisons are outside the border area where Turkey is expected to initially move its forces during an incursion. But Turkey might later push into areas where others are located.

Officials see a particular risk in the vast al-Hol detention camp, a dismal sprawl of tents near the Iraqi border that is home to an estimated 70,000 displaced women and children. The camp is surrounded by a flimsy fence and lacks even basic security precautions such as searchlights.

In an interview last week, the SDF’s top commander, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, said Kurdish guards don’t have “100 percent” control of the camp.

As conditions deteriorate and winter approaches, anger across the camp is growing with the Kurdish-majority guards. According to the International Rescue Committee, 339 children have died there since the start of the year, most of them under the age of 5.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the location of Queen’s University. It is in Kingston, Ontario, not Toronto.

Sly reported from Beirut. Louisa Loveluck in Irbil, Iraq, and Souad Mekhennet and Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.

Trump has opened the door for an Islamic State resurgence in Syria

By David Ignatius | Published October 09 at 3:12 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 9, 2019 7:20 PM ET |

By acquiescing to Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria on Wednesday, President Trump has opened the door to what could become a genuine nightmare for the United States and its allies: the revival of the deadly terrorist organization that called itself the Islamic State.

The danger lies not simply in the group’s sleeper cells that are still active — and that detonated three suicide bombs in the terrorists’ former capital of Raqqa on Wednesday. The larger risk comes from about 11,000 Islamic State fighters who have been detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led militia that Trump is abandoning, and who may now try to flee.

As the SDF mobilizes to combat the Turks, security at nearly 20 makeshift prisons is likely to deteriorate, U.S. officials said. The U.S. military has said that it won’t take control, nor will European allies. Turkey’s claim that it can police the camps is hollow, given that many of these terrorists arrived in Syria after passing through Turkey.

The cascade of bad events could get worse if action isn’t taken quickly. U.S. officials fear that as security deteriorates, U.N. relief agencies may abandon control of a camp called al-Hol, which holds more than 70,000 refugees, more than 25 percent of whom are relatives of killed or captured Islamic State fighters. Riots have rocked al-Hol in recent days, and visitors say that some areas are too dangerous to enter.

U.S. analysts said Wednesday afternoon that the Turkish air attacks were broader and deeper than many had initially expected, striking targets farther east and south than the objectives Turkey had indicated to U.S. officials. Kurdish civilians were said to be fleeing Kobani after heavy shelling there, and shelling was also reported in the eastern city of Qamishli.

Here’s the appalling scenario that U.S. officials fear could unfold if the Turkish invasion isn’t a quick, limited operation, as Trump apparently hopes: As security collapses in northeastern Syria, hardened Islamic State fighters could escape the prisons, storm the al-Hol camp to reunite with their families and then renew the terrorist assault against the West that they began in 2014.

A revived Islamic State would pose a threat to the U.S. homeland — but probably a greater one to Europe, Russia and regions where the “foreign fighters” originated. Though these places are all threatened by what’s ahead, none has taken significant steps to ease the impending crisis.

This frightening risk of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” against the Islamic State is a result of the Trump administration’s chronic policy breakdown. This begins with Trump himself, whose erratic swings on Syria have appalled some of his closest political allies. But it extends to an interagency process so enfeebled under Trump that it has failed for months to generate clear plans for dealing with a possible Islamic State resurgence if U.S. troops should leave, as Trump demanded in December.

European nations have been nearly as guilty as the Trump administration. As I explained in May, they have refused U.S. and Kurdish pleas to repatriate some of their nationals held in the SDF-controlled prisons, or even to pay the SDF for holding them. “The European Union is in denial,” one official told me then, noting that the refugee issue was so toxic politically that no European government dared touch it.

How large is the Islamic State army-in-waiting, if the prisoners escape the camps? Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the SDF commander, gave me some numbers in an interview in Kobani in July. He said that the SDF was guarding 12,000 Islamic State fighters who were captured when the caliphate was defeated. In addition to about 9,000 Syrian and Iraqi radical Islamists, this group included 2,500 foreign fighters, Mazloum said, with about 1,000 Europeans. U.S. estimates are slightly lower, counting about 2,200 foreign fighters among 11,000 prisoners.

The prisons are rough, makeshift facilities, mostly improvised in old schoolhouses and municipal buildings. There’s one actual prison in Hasakah, which was built by the Syrian regime and commandeered by the SDF. The prisoners themselves are said to be ragged and lice-ridden, according to an American who has visited one of the sites. Two prisons have already seen riots and attempted breakouts, including one in April at a facility in Dayrik that was holding British prisoners, according to a U.S. official.

Some foreign fighters have been questioned by FBI and U.S. military interrogators, or by representatives of France, Britain and other countries from which the detainees originally traveled. In recent weeks, U.S. and other coalition officials have begun discussing what they might do if security collapsed. But there has been little coordination.

The United States has identified 50 of the most dangerous detainees and may seek to transfer them to neighboring countries, perhaps Iraq. Trump has also requested that the United States take control of two notorious prisoners, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh (known in Britain as the “Beatles”), who are believed to have killed Western hostages.

For Trump, what’s unfolding now in Syria is largely a self-inflicted wound. It will be politically costly for him, but there’s a deeper problem. U.S. successes in the Middle East are too rare and precious to be squandered. But that’s what appears to be happening now in this grotesque coda to the war against the Islamic State.

Turkey wants to destroy us. Trump just gave them a green light.

By Hemin Kobane | Published October 09 at 6:43 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 9, 2019 725 PM ET |

Hemin Kobane is the Syrian Democratic Forces liaison with the international coalition against the Islamic State.

Not that long ago, the people of northeastern Syria were greeting U.S. troops as our saviors, as the torchbearers of freedom. Children gathered around the American visitors and expressed joy at the hope they were bringing for the future of our lands. Now those same Syrian children may face death amid the chaos of a new conflict.

This week, as we now know, President Trump spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has long made his plans for northeastern Syria clear. He wants to occupy a 19-mile-wide belt of territory along the border and to radically transform its demographics, replacing the Kurdish population there with 3 million Syrian Arab refugees from cities across Syria. We believe that he ultimately plans, in agreement with the Russians and the Syrian government, to settle our region with jihadists and their families displaced from other parts of the country.

Trump made it clear to Erdogan that the Turks may act as they see fit — and now Turkish troops have crossed the border into Syria, shelling and bombing our communities as they go. The attack threatens to cause a vast humanitarian disaster.

The United States has cast aside the Kurds and free people of Syria, leaving them to their fates at the hands of their mortal enemies. The international community is silent. This is yet another bitter defeat for the people of northeastern Syria.

We regarded the Americans as our friends and brothers in the fight against Islamic State, our common enemy. They worked at our side in hard times. They bled with us, bore witness to our 11,000 martyrs, the men and women who sacrificed their lives for the common cause. They saved hundreds of our friends who were wounded and might have otherwise died.

As a result of our work, we were able to save the international community from the threat of the Islamic State, which ended with the liberation of all Islamic State-held territories following the historic battle of Baghouz in March. U.S. troops and advisers on the ground contributed to the gains we made in stability, peace and freedom.

We fought together on the front lines. There were many sleepless nights, and we spent many hard days together. We know that you truly believe in our cause. We believed that you will stand with us to the end. We hoped that the stability and freedom of the area under our control would offer a strategic stronghold for the future of the entire region. Our fellowship was a light of hope for the citizens of all of Syria.

Unfortunately, yet once more, our foes in the region are conspiring to destroy our people. The tragedy of the Kurdish people, who have suffered for so many generations, is about to repeat itself.

One need look no further than recent history. Last year, the Russians evacuated their positions in the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin and allowed the Turks to move in. The Turks, who supported a variety of radical factions, allowed their fundamentalist allies to occupy the town. Nearly 1,500 people from Afrin, half of them civilians, were killed; the rest — 300,000 people altogether — were displaced to refugee camps.

Now, as a result of this fateful decision, the Kurds of Syria will see the United States as a collaborator of Erdogan, the dictator who wishes to destroy everything we have built. Yet we trust in the principles, values and freedoms of the American spirit. We understand fully that Trump��s position is his own, and that it does not represent the position of the American people. We have always regarded the U.S. soldier as a friend, one whom we always aimed to guard and protect. We always lived up to our words and cherished our fellowship.

We hope, in these hard times, that we will once again have your support to change our fate — to save our people from genocide, because Turkey had previously supported the Islamic State and the Islamist radicals in killing and displacing our people. They failed in that mission, so now they are now trying to do it themselves. We hope the free world and democratic Syria will prevail.

0 notes