{"id":24437,"date":"2016-09-19T09:28:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T13:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/?p=24437"},"modified":"2021-02-03T17:40:23","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T22:40:23","slug":"aftandilian-publishes-op-ed-in-the-arab-weekly-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/2016\/09\/19\/aftandilian-publishes-op-ed-in-the-arab-weekly-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Aftandilian Publishes Op-Ed in The Arab Weekly<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Aft1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gregory Aftandilian,<\/a> Lecturer at the <\/span>Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University,<\/a>\u00a0published a recent Op-Ed piece discussing the Syrian Kurds fight against ISIS.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aftandilian was quoted in a September 18, 2016 article in\u00a0The Arab Weekly<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>entitled “Syrian Kurds\u2019 calculations, between Turkey and US.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

From the text of the article:<\/p>\n

\n

Politically, the Syrian Kurds have created an autonomous proto-state called Rojava in eastern and north\u00adern Syria that flies its own flag and has its own administration. Rojava means \u201cwest\u201d in the Kurdish lan\u00adguage, signifying the western por\u00adtions of Kurdistan.<\/p>\n

But US support for the Syrian Kurds has run up against Turkey\u2019s deep antipathy towards the PYD because of its reported links with the Kurdish Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) in Turkey, which has fought an armed separatist campaign against Turkey since 1984. Both Ankara and Washington consider the PKK a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n

Turkish troops, backed by air strikes, have moved into parts of northern Syria ostensibly to clear ISIS fighters from the town of Ja\u00adrabulus with the support of the Free Syrian Army. However, a large part of the mission was to strike YPG fighters and, in the words of the Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik, prevent the Kurds \u201cfrom join\u00ading their east and west cantons in Syria.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You can read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aftandilian<\/span>\u00a0spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).\u00a0Learn more about him here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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