Why are the Kurds always in the firing line?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2019
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Turkey’s push to clear the Kurds from its border with Syria has brought howls of betrayal. Many Kurds believed the Americans would protect them, after they’d defeated the so-called Islamic State terror group together. But this is just the latest of the dozens of conflicts in which the Kurds have been involved over the past few decades. Why can’t they find peace? Is it their fault? Should the regimes they live under take responsibility? Or does the blame lie further back in history?
We hear from:
Dr Afshin Shahi - Lecturer in Middle East politics and International Relations at Bradford University Dr Gönül Tol - Director of Center at The Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies Fazel Hawramy – Freelance journalist Lindsey Hilsum – International editor of Channel 4 News
Presenter: Neal Razzell Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton Researcher: Lizzy McNeill
(Photo: Kurdish fighters withdraw from the border area near the northern Syrian town of Amuda on 27 October 2019. Credit: Delil Souleiman/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:02.8 | I'm Neil Riselle. |
| 0:04.0 | Each week, four expert witnesses answer one question from the news. Jaws dropped earlier this month when President Trump announced he was pulling US forces out of Northern Syria. |
| 0:21.0 | They'd been there helping Kurdish fighters defeat so-called Islamic |
| 0:24.4 | state. The American withdrawal meant Turkey could come across the border and |
| 0:28.5 | attack the Kurds. Even members of President Trump's own party were shocked. |
| 0:37.0 | The decision was made by this administration, which has led to the Turks going in to Syria and wiping out our friends, the Kurds. |
| 0:47.0 | A ceasefire has been arranged after days of fighting, but a Kurdish spokesman said their forces |
| 0:52.0 | felt abandoned. |
| 0:53.4 | They have been stopped in the back and the Trump administration has betrayed them. |
| 0:57.6 | Nonsense, said President Trump. |
| 1:00.0 | The Kurds know how to fight and they're not angels. They're not angels. |
| 1:04.6 | If you take a look you have to go back and take a look. They did well when they fought with us. |
| 1:09.5 | They didn't do so well when they didn't fight with us. |
| 1:11.6 | There has been a lot of fighting in Kurdish history. This |
| 1:15.1 | week we're asking, why are the Kurds always in the firing line? |
| 1:22.3 | Part 1, no friends but the mountains. |
| 1:27.0 | The mountains. The Kurds believe that you know they have been betrayed time and time again. |
| 1:37.0 | Afshins-shahhi lectures in Middle East politics at the University of Bradford in the UK. |
| 1:45.0 | And they don't have anybody who can actually help them to realize their long dream for creation |
| 1:51.0 | of Kurdish homeland. |
| 1:55.0 | That dream is as old as the hills themselves. |
... |
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