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Îlham Ehmed

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File:Ilham Ahmed in Tabqa.jpg
Îlham Ehmed in 2018

Îlham Ehmed, also rendered as Îlham Ahmed (Arabic: إلهام أحمد), was born in Afrin[1] and is a Syrian-Kurdish politician from the Democratic Union Party,[2] who is currently the co-president of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).[3][4] Until July 2018, she was a co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC),[5][6] an umbrella organisation of secular, democratic, opposition in Syria that acts as the legislature of the AANES. Ehmed is a member of the executive committee of the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) coalition.[7][6]

Political career

Ehmed is particularly outspoken on the aim of a programmatically polyethnic character of a future Syria. At the start of the Northern Raqqa offensive in November 2016, she was quoted saying that "such an administration could provide a good example for democratic change in Raqqa, especially that the city has been for years a de facto capital for the ISIS terrorist group. This accomplishment would be a major change in the overall situation in Syria, and would help the country move towards stability, democratic change. Raqqa will be an example for the whole country."[8]

She took part in negotiations with the Syrian Government in Damascus concerning services that shall be provided also in the areas governed by the SDC in July 2018.[9]

Along with this, she is also a member of the Syrian Women's Initiative for Peace and Democracy. She has been fighting in the struggle for Kurdish freedom since the 1990s.[1] Her main goal as Executive President of the Syrian Democratic Council is to have a decentralized state.[10] In this decentralized state she pushes for local civilian councils and governments that guarantee the rights of different Syrian groups.[10] This includes the freedom of expression, gender equality, etc.[10] She also wants the rights of the Kurdish people to be guaranteed in the Syrian Constitution.[10]

Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria

After US President Donald Trump declared that the United States would withdraw its troops from the territories governed by the SDC in December 2018, and Turkey threatened to attack, she travelled to Paris with SDC co-chair Riad Darar to talk with the French government about further cooperation with the French troops stationed in the areas governed by the SDC.[11] This left Îlham Ehmed and the SDC vulnerable to an attack from Turkey in northeastern Syria. The SDC would be prone to attack from Turkey because the belief of Syrian ties to the People's Protection Units (YPG), which has ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).[10] Ahmed says, “Because Turkey is a NATO state, they (Turkish government) designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.”[10] She finishes by saying that, “The PKK never targeted the interests of the United States or any other NATO country and it is only an issue for Turkey.”[10] This means that when the United States withdraws its troops Turkey no longer has any allied governments standing in its way of attacking the SDC; As they consider them terrorists because of the belief that the SDC supports the PKK.[12] This invasion also is susceptible to ethnic cleansing as the belief links the SDC and PKK to the Kurds. According to Ahmed not only will the Turks be attacking the Kurds, but there are other ethnicities in the area including Syriacs, Arabs, and Christians.[10] She evens says that these people are the majority in the area.[10] After negotiations with the French Government, French troops ended up staying in Syria.[12]

October 2019 was the second time that President Trump ordered troops to withdraw from Syria. Following Turkey invaded Rojava and 250 people were killed and over 130,000 displaced.[13] Many of those that were displaced had to leave their ancestral homes.[10] This occurred despite a cease-fire was made between the Turks and Kurds backed by the United States and Russia.[10] According to Ahmed the Turks were not following the cease-fire as there were some leaked videos that show the Syrian National Army mutilating a body of a Kurdish fighter.[10] Along with this she says that some have leadership from the Islamic State that the SDC worked hard to eliminate with American help.[10] Turkey has also violated humanitarian rights by the Ahrar al-Sharqiya militia, which Turkish forces back, brutally murdering Hevrin Khalaf. She was a Kurdish politician who was traveling along route M4.[13] Her body was found with dozens of bullet holes, lacerations, and her skin was detached from her scalp when she was dragged by her hair from the car.[13] The cease-fire did however calm the invasion of Turkey and left time for them to think about the American troops that have entered back into Northern Syria.[10] The cease-fire also brought up the question of possibly putting 200 troops back into eastern Syria to protect oil fields.[14] Also this happened to prevent the Islamic State from reentering the territories that were recently taken.[14]

Ties With the United States

As discussed in the previous section Îlham Ehmed also has some issues with the White House, as Trump has been withdrawing and reentering troops somewhat frequently. As this has happened twice in the last ten months, she has become wary of United States assistance militarily.[10] Since the battle against the Islamic State has started the Ehmed and the SDC has lost 11,000 men and 24,000 have been wounded.[13][15] With the withdrawal of American troops and the bloodshed because of this, Ehmed has called upon the United States to help once again. She asks that the United States:

  • Stop the Turkish aggression on North and East Syria.
  • Stop the Turkish genocide against the people of North and East Syria.
  • Impose immediate, substantial sanctions on Turkey.
  • Exercise all diplomatic pressures that could deter the Turkish aggression.
  • Deploy international peacekeepers along the border with Turkey.
  • Suspend Article 5 of NATO charter regarding the Turkish intervention in North and East Syria.
  • Restore the International Coalition's control over the airspace in North and East Syria to prevent Turkey from bombing the region.
  • Impose a no fly-zone.
  • Send international observers to document the violations committed by Turkish army and the so-called "National Army" and assess the humanitarian situation resulting from the Turkish invasion.[13]

Quotes and Interview With Îlham Ehmed

References

  1. ^ a b "ILHAM AHMED, Executive President, Syrian Democratic Council" (PDF). docs.house.gov. October 23, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "Syrian Kurdish leader: Moscow wants to work with us". Al-Monitor. 8 October 2015.
  3. ^ Fetah, Vîviyan (17 July 2018). "Îlham Ehmed: Dê rêxistinên me li Şamê jî ava bibin". www.rudaw.net (in Kurdish). Rudaw Media Network. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  4. ^ "مجلس سوريا الديمقراطية ينهي أعمال مؤتمره بإصدار البيان الختامي - ANHA" (in Arabic).
  5. ^ "Ehmed: Nobody can question where the SDF will advance". Hawar News Agency. 22 February 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Can Syrian Democratic Council play unifier in postwar Syria?". Al-Monitor. 13 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Executive Board of Democratic Syria Assembly elected". ANF. 13 December 2015.
  8. ^ "Local civilian council to run post-ISIS Raqqa: Kurdish official". ARA news. 14 November 2016.
  9. ^ "Syrian Kurdish-backed council holds talks in Damascus". Reuters. July 27, 2018 – via www.reuters.com.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Seligman, Lara. "Trump Wants U.S. Troops to Guard Syria's Oil. The Kurds May Not Welcome Them". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  11. ^ "Syrian Democratic Council leaders set for Paris talks on US withdrawal". The Defense Post. December 20, 2018.
  12. ^ a b ProQuest 2159656113
  13. ^ a b c d e Ahmed, Ilham (October 23, 2019). "Testimony of Ms. Ilham Ahmed Executive President Syrian Democratic Council" (PDF). United States House Oversight and Reform National Security Subcommittee “The Trump Administration’s Syria Policy: Perspectives From the Field” October 23, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ a b Schmitt, Eric; Haberman, Maggie (2019-10-20). "Trump Said to Favor Leaving a Few Hundred Troops in Eastern Syria". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  15. ^ Ilham Ahmed, Syrian Democratic Council co-chair, on exclusion of Kurds from constitutional committee, retrieved 2019-11-20
  16. ^ "INTERVIEW: Kurdish leader Ilham Ahmed on security in North and East Syria". The Defense Post. 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
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