The Tragic Plight of the Kurds Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is an edited version of a transcript created using AI technology and may not reflect 100% accuracy.

The video can be found here.

Sarah: Good afternoon, and welcome to yet another very riveting EMET webinar. All eyes have been focused on the atrocities in Iran, and indeed there are atrocities. We have gotten reports of 30 to 40,000 fatalities among the protesters, and President Trump has a wonderful display of force racing towards Iran. Some of them have already gotten there. But there are also other tragic events that are going on right now. I’m really concerned that much of the West, Western journalists, Western policymakers have overlooked the plight of the Syrian Kurds. Ever since Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, took over Syria in December of 2024 and became president in January of 2025, many minorities have been abused. And most significantly, the Syrian Kurds. The Kurds who span southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria, have long had the expression, “We have no other friends but the mountains.” Never was that more true than it is today. The Syrian Kurds are absolutely being mutilated, abused, killed.

Women have been raped and mutilated, as well as children. We have with us today, Diliman Abdulkader, who really is an expert on this issue. He has started his own think tank, the American Friends of Kurdistan, AFK, which is an advocacy and educational organization to strengthen, protect, and promote U.S.- Kurdish relations. AFK also supports policies that advance the national security and prosperity of Americans, Kurds, and our other allies. This Diliman comes from a great foreign policy background and a national security background. He once worked with us at EMET, and he is a true friend of EMET, and he invests his time on Capitol Hill, educating lawmakers, policymakers, and staffers about the plight of the Kurds. Diliman received his master’s in international peace and conflict resolution from the American University in Washington, DC. Diliman, can you explain what is really happening to the Syrian Kurds today.

Diliman: Well, thank you, Sarah, for having me, and thank you for hosting this very timely event. As you said, the Kurds have a saying, “No friends but the mountains,” but EMET has always been a true friend of the Kurds for a long time. So we truly appreciate that. You explained it very well in the beginning, Sarah. As far as the Kurds in Syria, it’s been a total abandonment of the Kurdish people in Syria. And this is the continuation of the countless betrayals that we’ve seen throughout the history of the Kurdish people by the West. And what we’ve seen, and we’ve worked together for a while, Sarah, you and I, we’ve discussed this for nearly a decade now. We’ve seen countless conflicts that come in to- that target the Kurds in northeast Syria, and it’s all promoted and advanced by Turkey. We’ve seen northwest Syria, a predominantly Kurdish region, in 2018, and Afrin occupied by Turkey with a Russian green light. We all remember that. It is still occupied by Turkey to this day. We’ve seen in 2019 the incursion by Turkish military forces, which occupy 30 kilometers into northeast Syria, dividing historical Kurdish land. It continues to be occupied by Turkish-backed Islamists and Turkish forces to this day.

What 2019 couldn’t have achieved, Erdogan, the president of Turkey, made sure to have achieved it this time around. Fast forward to 2026. So the call for U.S. troop withdrawal, the dismantling of the autonomous region that the Kurds have created since 2019, the ethnic and religious protection of ethnic and religious minorities in the country, everything that we’ve seen- stability, security, protection of churches, protection of Yazidi minorities, women, and children, you name it- that has been totally dismantled within the past few weeks. That northeast Syria that we’ve discussed for a long time, that existed, that we promoted on Capitol Hill, that the Kurds built alongside Christians, alongside Yazidis, Armenians, and the diverse makeup of the country, including American service members that fight alongside the Kurds, no longer exists. So now the Kurds have, within the past few weeks, within basically the entire month of January, with the green light of, unfortunately, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, we’ve seen Turkey being given the green light to advance its military incursions to dismantle the autonomous region of northeast Syria through Turkey, excuse me, through Damascus, through Jolani.

And that’s been the case. We know Jolani’s track record. We know Jolani’s history. It’s very clear that he is an ISIS member. He’s a former al-Qaeda member, and I wouldn’t[?] even say former. The so-called Syrian army today is composed of radical Islamists that threaten whoever is not a radical Islamist, basically. So the intention is to basically revive ISIS. And unfortunately, what we’ve seen in the past few weeks is the revival of ISIS. We’ve seen the Kurds pushed back all the way to the Hasakah province in the northern region of Syria, predominantly Kurdish regions. But also we’ve seen ISIS prison camps being overwhelmed and attacked by the Jolani forces, by the radical Islamists. They have been freed. So they’re running rampant across the country. They’re, as you mentioned in the introduction, attacking women. They’re attacking minorities. They’re attacking children. They’re chopping heads off. They’re throwing women off buildings.

You name it, they’re cutting off the braids of the Kurdish fighters, the hair of the Kurdish fighters, just as they were shaving off the mustaches and beards of the Jews in the south. This is radical Islamism. This time it’s different. This time it has been given permission to exist. The war on ISIS, where the West aligned with the Kurds and took on ISIS, the Kurds lost 15,000-plus lives. This is the opposite of that. And now ISIS and al-Qaeda and radical Islamists have a state. It’s called Syria. It’s been given large sums of money in the billions of dollars by the West. It’s been given by the European Union, including… It’s been given the political and military backing and funding by Middle East states, by Saudi Arabia, by Qatar, by other countries in the region, by Turkey, of course. And unfortunately, the Kurds have been given the short end of the stick again.

Sarah: Yeah, the Kurds have never won. They certainly didn’t win when Sykes and Picot were carving up the map of the Middle East. And now, of course, do you have any conception of how many fatalities there have been among the Kurds? Is it hard to get out?

Diliman: Yeah, I mean, that number is very difficult because it’s an active conflict currently. As we’re speaking, the radical Islamists led by Turkey and Damascus are currently striking the Kurdish areas. So the so-called agreement was for there’s supposed to be a ceasefire. There’s supposed to be a halting of conflict. The guarantor is supposed to be Tom Barrack in the United States. But we see that Tom Barrack is pressuring the Kurds on one end while allowing this conflict to continue and cause a further humanitarian crisis. What we know on the ground is that there’s been a lot of fatalities. But there’s also been a huge- couple hundred thousand Kurds that are forced to leave their homes because they are no longer protected, because the fear is that the Islamists will come and just slaughter them, basically. So now we’ve seen a huge migration and demographic change conducted by Damascus.

Sarah: Where are they going? Where are the Kurds fleeing to?

Diliman: They’re forced to go further north to the Kurdish region. For example, in Aleppo, we have seen- this is where the conflict started, in Aleppo, where the two neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiya. And these two neighborhoods a few weeks back were the starting point of this larger conflict that we’re seeing in northeast Syria. Where the two neighborhoods… We’re not talking about two towns or two villages. It was literally two neighborhoods. If you can think of two small American neighborhoods, were besieged by al-Qaeda, by Turkey, by ISIS, literally surrounded. And a measly 300 police force, a security force that was left behind, were protecting that city for weeks. So they were facing 40,000-plus al-Qaeda radical Islamist Damascus forces for a whole week. They were able to fend them off. But unfortunately, due to the Western pressure, due to the pressure from Turkey, due to the disadvantage and the lack of resources that the Kurds have, the Kurds were forced to open up a humanitarian corridor and pull the forces out.

Sarah: What is going on in Special Envoy Tom Barrack’s mind? I don’t quite understand this.

Diliman: Yeah, absolutely. That’s a wonderful question. We’d like to know the answer to that. A few things are for sure. This doesn’t advance U.S. national security interests. Betraying our allies does not advance U.S. national security interests. So that’s the argument. That’s not the case on the ground. That’s not the reality on the ground. This betrays our partners, our reliable partners that have fought alongside U.S. service members. And we know this is- unfortunately, this continuous betrayal of the Kurds by the West, and specifically this time around by the United States, forces the Kurds to rethink who are our true friends. If we are putting on the front lines 15,000 of our Kurdish men and women to defend the free world, to defend Europe so ISIS is not in your cities, just a few months ago we had an ISIS attack in New Orleans, if you remember, in the United States. What happens in Syria doesn’t stay in Syria. The Kurds are pro-Western. The Kurds are pro-American. Unfortunately, everything that we’ve seen happen under Tom Barrack is the clear- it’s fulfilling the demands and the national security of Turkey. It’s fulfilling the goals of Turkey. It’s not fulfilling the goals of the United States. Common sense says, if you know for a fact that we had a $10 million bounty on Jolani just a few months ago, and we don’t trust him with ISIS detainees, and we have to transfer the ISIS detainees out of Syria and into Iraq, as CENTCOM publicly posted, we know that they’re not reliable partners. So why would we betray our Kurdish partners?

Sarah: It makes absolutely no sense. Yesterday was the International Holocaust Remembrance Day of the liberation of Auschwitz, and while Jews all over the world were signifying that, another genocide is going on. And this is the genocide of the Kurds, who have really gotten the rod[?] to[?] the stick. Can you tell us a little bit more about what’s happened with women? So many of the women have been disappearing from Kurdish areas.

Diliman: Absolutely. Yazidi women, those who suffered, Yazidi women and girls, where thousands to this day are missing, by the way, they continue to be missing. And it’s the same radicals that Tom Barrack is forcing for the Kurds to integrate with, that strong army of the Kurds to be part of the government with, as we speak. So there’s many women that have been missing. Those who were captured, some we’ve seen clips where they were thrown off buildings. Unfortunately, the way they’re being treated, they’re not abiding… We’re not experts[?], we know who they are, we know these… They don’t follow international law, they don’t follow the laws of war. The rules don’t apply to them. We know that they have the green lights, we know that they’re given permission to do this, this is not a secret, we knew they would do this, we weren’t that they would do this. We’ve seen women and children just being slaughtered. The clips are gruesome. It’s just horrible. I don’t blame people for not being able to watch them. But this is ISIS, again, 2.0. But this time, they’re allowed to have that caliphate. And that caliphate in Damascus with the permission of the West.

Sarah: Can we at this point, just show the clip that the Israeli government showed about what’s going on with the Kurds in northeastern Syria? Lily, can you show that?[foreign language]Gruesome. Women thrown from buildings. And I know that in the United Nations, there was a discussion about this. And what was the response in the UN?

Diliman: Well, the only country that stood up and defended the Kurds at the UN was Israel. Israel shed light on these gruesome human rights abuses and violations in these war crimes. But again, unfortunately, the Kurds have the short end of the stick, as you saw in that video. This is being allowed to happen. And it’s being enforced. It’s being enforced.

Sarah: Right. So what would you suggest that American citizens who are aware of this do?

Diliman: Well, we have to pressure- look, we know the president, what the United States president wants, President Trump wants to withdraw troops. We all know that. He attempted to withdraw troops in 2019, but wasn’t able to fulfill that goal. He is now attempting to fulfill that goal in 2026. But he’s doing it in a manner where it harms US national security. He’s doing it where he’s rushing to solidify the advanced- the legitimization of Jolani while betraying our allies. In the process, ISIS detainees are- that have been kept secure for years by the Kurds, have been freed by Jolani. And that’s why even CENTCOM put that post out saying… They even called on Damascus, they posted this publicly that we call on the Syrian army to not interfere with the ISIS prisoners. That means we still don’t trust you, but we’re still going to betray our Kurds who kept them safe. And we have to keep these guys out. We have to take these radicals out and transfer them to Iraq, which Iraq hasn’t accepted. So now we’ve created a chaotic situations for ourselves with our own doing. So, I urge Americans to reach out to your representatives to put the pressure on that we cannot continue to betray the Kurds on the ground. But it’s also betraying our service members that have fought alongside our reliable allies.

Sarah: [inaudible]Yeah. Okay. And what do you know has happened to the children? I know many children have disappeared.

Diliman: Many children have disappeared and many have died. Kobani is one that we haven’t talked about. Kobani is the Kurdish town in Northeast Syria that borders Turkey. Kobani is where the American-Kurdish alliance began. Kobani is the town that resisted ISIS. So if you recall in 2014, with the rise of ISIS, Kobani was totally besieged and surrounded by ISIS on one side and Turkish army on the other. You would think Turkey being part of NATO with NATO principles and democratic values, they would come in and side with the Kurds and help fight ISIS. No. In 2014, Turkish tanks and Turkish soldiers were watching Kobani be attacked and an invasion happened, live. They were just watching on the hill with their- sitting on their tanks without taking any action, rooting for ISIS. Erdogan publicly stated that Kobani will fall. He was excited. Kobani did not fall. And that’s how the U.S.-Kurdish alliance in Syria started. Fast forward, this same town today is being attacked again. It’s being invaded again. And this is, again, going back to Erdogan. Erdogan is trying to finish the job that he couldn’t finish back then, in 2014 and 2018 and 2019 and so on. So I think this is an opportunity for Erdogan to make sure Kobani falls now. But again, they are surrounded. Five children, if I’m not mistaken, the number may have gone up, but five children were frozen to death because the government cut off the electricity. There was no power. There was no access to internet. It was total blackout. And the Kurds were forced to kind of, from the other regions, create a humanitarian corridor for[?] them finally, to let in the goods and services that they needed, because this was, and this was intentional. They wanted to starve the Kurds. They wanted Kobani to fall. They wanted to make sure that Kobani is isolated from the rest of the Kurdish regions. And this is the military tactic of radical Islamist backed by Turkey.

Sarah: So who are our policymakers, who are legislators in the US government that you think are most reliable, who could actually stand up to the administration that are so sympathetic towards Erdogan, Turkey, Tom Barrack?

Diliman: Yeah, that’s a difficult one. Right now we have the House and Senate is led by Republicans, of course. But, unfortunately, the Syria file, many members of Congress don’t want to step on their toes at the president. And we’ve seen the Syria file kind of be in the hands of Tom Barrack himself, and I wouldn’t even say the State Department. The State Department has made very little comments and statements on it. This tells us that Tom Barrack is handling this and his team, and whatever that looks like. But we’ve seen Senator Lindsey Graham has been very passionate about this issue. He’s spoken nonstop on this issue, released statements on this issue on social media. He’s mentioned that he’s had a conversation with Secretary Rubio and President Trump on this issue that protecting the Kurds, not betraying our allies in Northeast Syria. And he’s mentioned that he will introduce a legislation called the Save the Kurds Act. And hopefully that gains some momentum, bipartisan momentum on both sides of the aisle. But I think Senator Lindsey Graham is the go to as of the moment. But we will see, because Syria is one of the many conflicts that’s happening right now in Iran. But make no mistake, we haven’t gotten to this conversation yet. But the Kurds in Iran are also paying attention to how the Kurds in Syria are being treated. And if they’re betrayed, the Kurds in Iran will find it difficult for them to advance and help remove the regime that we’re seeing right now in Iran.

Sarah: Is there any corridor for the Kurds in Northeastern Syria to get to Iraq? Is it safer for them in Iraq?

Diliman: Yeah, so the Kurds in Iraq, the Kurdistan region, they do share a border with the Kurds in Iraq- with the Kurds in Syria. And they were able to transfer hundreds of semi trucks of humanitarian aid that the Kurds collected themselves to help their brethren across the border. So that border is open. That’s how they’re able to transfer the aid. But as we speak, Sarah, the Damascus radical Islamists are trying to cut off that border as well. They’re starting conflicts right now to kind of divide the Kurds and create a blockade between the two. So there’s no connection. Again, this is Erdogan’s goal of making sure that the Kurds have no degree of autonomy, that the Kurds have no degree of sharing of borders and cross border interaction to prevent a future, say, down the road, whenever that may be a Kurdish state.

Sarah: Do you think that Erdogan is trying to carve an outpost of Syria for himself?

Diliman: Absolutely. This is Turkey’s goal. Turkey’s goal is to expand its territory. Historically, Turkey, wherever it goes, it doesn’t withdraw. It annexes these territories. It takes it as its own. And Damascus today is ruled and controlled by Turkey, by Ankara. 1974, Turkey still occupies Cyprus, northern Cyprus. Turkey still occupies Libya. Turkey still occupies parts of Syria. There’s no signs that they will withdraw. And the continuous strong arming of the Kurds to put their weapons down, integrate into the so-called Syrian army. How come the demand is not, okay, the first step should be that Turkey should withdraw its troops from Syria outside of its territory? But we do not see that case. Isn’t that interesting? So the demand is for the Kurds to put their weapons down, but not for Syria to leave the country that it’s not supposed to be in.

Sarah: All right, Lily, could you show the picture of that young man who was being led away? Could we put that on the screen? If you have it. Okay. Let’s see.

Lily: Hang on just a moment. I’m just experiencing technical difficulties.

Sarah: Okay. It’s just the look of horror on his face. He knew what he was about to face. Diliman has sent me some videos, and I saw this young man. We have no idea what awaited him when he was attacked by the Syrian armed forces.

Diliman: [inaudible]images like that of women as well. And this young man, you can imagine, you can see the patches on them. This is supposed to be the Syrian army, a professional army. The United States Congress lifted the Caesar Sanctions Act on the condition that the radical Islamists would be held accountable, put in prison, or removed from the country. No, this is ISIS 2.0, but with the green light of the West. You can see. They have ISIS patches, they have Turkish patches on them. There’s images of women being captured, and the women are just being abused, being hit, their hair is being pulled, their hair is being cut off, being mocked, being called pigs, and traitors, and coffers, you name it- all the insults.

Sarah: Yeah, but also being physically assaulted, mutilated, and thrown from the tops of buildings for the sin of being born Kurdish. It’s just terrific to imagine in 2026, this has all been going on. Have you seen any Western journalists cover this, any press about this?

Diliman: The press, it’s not where it’s supposed to be. The Kurds[?] always have to push and pull to get some attention. This is not some distant conflict in Syria that it’s not going to come to our front doorsteps. What happens again, what happens in Syria will impact Europe. Erdogan has always talked about this in the past. Erdogan has threatened to flood the gates of Europe with refugees. He’s been given the green light to do this, so he doesn’t do that. Your EU has given Damascus millions and millions of dollars while the Kurds were being attacked. We see the EU leaders, Ursula, visit Damascus shaking the hands of Jolani while they were attacking and invading Aleppo, for example. So it’s just European values doesn’t seem to exist. International policy, international law doesn’t seem to apply. We’d like to see more journalists speak on this issue because it’s an act[?] of humanitarian crisis.

Sarah: Let me see if I could go on to some more questions. In the meantime, Diliman and the American Friends of Kurdistan really could use your support. Do you have an email address where people can send charitable donations to?

Diliman: Yeah, please. Thank you for that, Sarah. Yeah, just visit americanfriendsofkurdistan.org. We’re active in Washington. Visit our website. You can click the donate button. You can feel free to donate through there. Also, there’s a contact form if you want to reach out, if you have questions, if you have something that might help us advance the cause, we’d be very helpful. Thank you.

Sarah: Right. Okay. I’m looking to see if there are any chats. Okay. I don’t see very much that’s but I think it’s very… Would you like to show just another video about how horrific this is? Do you want to pick one from…

Man 2: Human Rights, an independent organization, says it knows who the person, the abusive man, in this now viral video is. The man who appears to be abusing the body of a Kurdish female fighter and throwing it from the high floor of a building in Aleppo. SNHR says the man is a member of the Syrian army and that what he did is a war crime. The Syrian Network for Human Rights says it has verified the authenticity of a video that appears to show Syrian government forces abusing the body of a Kurdish female fighter and throwing it from a high floor of a building in Aleppo. Is the United Nations aware of this footage?[inaudible][crosstalk]accountability.

Man 3[?]: I’ve seen these reports. They’re extremely disturbing, to say the least. And of course, in all of these cases, they need to be accountability.

Diliman: We won’t see accountability. Jolani is in Damascus. Excuse me, Jolani is in Moscow today visiting Putin. He’s had meetings with Putin as we speak, and he’s been legitimized. So Jolani is ISIS 2.0. The[inaudible] political tactic, the geostrategic tactic might be to use Jolani and the Sunni radical Islamists against, for example, the toppling of the Iranian regime and the Shiite proxies in the region. But that’s a dangerous game to play. That’s a sectarian war that would lead to chaos across the region. There’s been talks that the Kurds were pressured to play a role in that, but the Kurds refused. That they’re not going to be in the middle of a Sunni Shiite war. They’re not mercenaries. The Kurds are a legitimate force protecting ethnic and religious minorities. They won’t be used. Sarah, if we could talk about the Kurds in Iran, this is important. We’ve seen action and the military buildup in the Middle East by the United States. We’ve seen the, as you mentioned, thousands of Iranians losing their lives by the mullahs in Iran, 30,000 plus the reports are. The Kurds in Iran are the most armed and organized force in the country. There’s 14 million Kurds in Iran. Now, how do you think those 14 million Kurds feel today that they see the Kurds in Syria betrayed? Right. And then tomorrow, if the United States asks them or if the West or if the EU asks them to help them remove the Mullahs, if it gets to that point, help them conduct regime change on the ground, they’re going to say, “No, we can’t trust you. You’re going to use us. Then you’re going to install another strong dictator inside the country, another person that will call us separatist, another dictator that will call us terrorists.” This is exactly what happened in Syria, and the Kurds no longer feel that they can trust the West.

Sarah: The irony of ironies is Erdogan, he’s actually from Moscow. Why is he a member of NATO? This is not the same Turkey that it was before Erdogan seized control. And we’re seeing what he is doing to Syria. I’m afraid there’s always going to be war there. Just a horrific massacre of the Kurds who have been our best friends in the fight against ISIS and always been our best friends. Please support the American Friends of Kurdistan. See what you can do. See if you can write your member of Congress and make sure that Jolani has to be stopped. This just can’t go on. It just can’t go on. It’ll just be another genocide. Thank you so much, Diliman Abdulkader. It’s always been a pleasure, even though it’s not such a great topic, but it’s always a pleasure to learn from you, to hear from you, and to support our Kurdish friends. Thank you.

Diliman: Thank you, Sarah. Thank you to everyone at EMET. You’re wonderful. Keep up the great work. Thank you.
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