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LA's Kurdish Community Condemns Trump's Syria Troop Withdrawal
Syrian Kurds wave the Kurdish flag, in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on September 27, 2017.
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DELIL SOULEIMAN AFP/Getty Images
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LA's Kurdish Community Condemns Trump's Syria Troop Withdrawal
The Turkish military is preparing to invade Northern Syria, following President Trump’s announcement he would pull U.S. troops from the region. Critics say the policy change would mean the U.S. abandoning Kurdish allies who have been leading the fight against ISIS.
"This is one of the greatest betrayals of the century, not that the Kurds are not used to such betrayal," said Amir Sharifi, a Kurdish human rights advocate and linguist who lives in the West Hills area.
The Kurds are a stateless ethnic group whose population is split into four zones across Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long threatened to invade Kurdish Syria.
President Trump has defended his decision, arguing that the removal of U.S. troops from the region is long overdue. But many worry that Turkey will massacre the Kurds, who have established a self-governed enclave in North Syria.
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