Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) Co-Chair Ahmed Karamuş led a delegation to Washington for talks on the Kurdish issue and the role of the United States (US) in the Middle East, engaging in a score of diplomatic meetings and an extensive interview with Voice of America (VoA).
The delegation held talks with the US House of Representatives and the Senate and also took part in roundtable meetings with State Department officials and eight different think-tank organisations.
During the VoA interview, Karamuş gave an overview of the Middle East crisis, drawing special attention to the situation in the Kurdish-majority regions of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
He condemned Turkey’s cross-border attacks in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Kurdish-led North and East Syria, and called for a “major US intervention” to exert pressure on Turkey to halt its military actions.
According to Karamuş, a resolution of both the Kurdish issue and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is crucial for peace in the Middle East. The Israel-Hamas war has impacted the wider regional crisis, the KCK co-chair said, adding that Iran’s latest attacks on Israel have further exasperated tensions.
Karamuş examined the role of the US in the Middle East over the past two decades. After the dismantling of the Baath regime under Saddam Hussein in 2003, Karamuş explained, the US presence became a defining factor in the Middle East, as it carried out major interventions against radical Islamist forces including ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra.
US dialogue with the armed Kurdish movement arose in the early 2010s, as the Arab Spring took hold. A key turning point, during 2014, saw Kurdish forces leading a successful defeat against an ISIS siege on the northern Syrian town of Kobani (Kobanê). The US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS was simultaneously formed, allied with the Kurdish forces who led the historic resistance.
He noted that the US-led Global Coalition partnered with Kurdish forces on the ground to “ensure the security of the Middle East and the whole world in the war against ISIS.” Nevertheless, Kurdish-Syrian commanders have recently criticised the US for diminished investment in the international coalition and silence over Turkey’s military bombardments of Kurdish-led regions.
Turkey is currently “escalating its attacks on the Kurdish regions” which are being met by resistance from the Kurdish forces, leading to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeking new allies in his war against the Kurds and holding recent meetings with government officials from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) for support.
Karamuş stated that the KNK delegation calls on US officials to intervene and pressurise Turkey to halt it’s attacks against the Kurdish people and to open the way for renewed peace talks.
This call comes just days after the cancellation of President Erdoğan’s planned visit to the US. Analysts speculated the postponement was due to Erdoğan’s meeting with the leader of the designated terror group Hamas, and strained US-Turkey relations over several international issues, including disputes over Syria.
