The Kurds will be punished for Biden's Armenian Genocide recognition
Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
Turkey launched a cross-border attack against separatist Kurdish militants in northern Iraq within hours of US President Joe Biden's recognition of the Armenian Genocide carried out 106 years ago by the former Turkish government.
US troops, and their Kurdish allied militia, the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), came under armed attack in northeast Syria after Biden recognized the Armenian Genocide. The attackers were Turkish-backed mercenaries.
US military spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said on Tuesday, "Our forces did receive fire and return fire and then moved to a secure location," and added, "Our overt patrols that have been conducting patrols in that area to keep tensions down received fire multiple times." He acknowledged that the US had informed their Turkish counterparts that these attacks were "unacceptable".
Biden spoke to Ankara's extremist far-right authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday 23 for the first time since taking office, and the next day Biden announced the US recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Erdogan said he'd discuss US-Turkish strained relations in a meeting with Biden at the NATO summit in June, and said, "Otherwise, we will have no other choice but to implement the new practices required by the new level to which our relations have fallen."
For decades, Turkey had successfully coerced and threatened US administrations into not issuing recognition. In deference to the close relationship of the US and Turkey and their NATO membership, the US was willing to turn a blind eye to the genocide, even though the US has a substantial Armenian community.
The People's Protection Units (YPG) is the military wing of the US-backed Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) and is allied with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an internationally designated terrorist group, which has killed thousands in Turkey over three decades.
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