Elizabeth TsurkovVerified account
@Elizrael
Passionate about human rights. Fellow @FPRI focusing on the Levant & Research Fellow @RegThink. @PUPolitics PhD student. Admin @WomenKnowMENA
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Chaotic and short-sighted policy-making produced a week of horrors in northeastern Syria. I spoke to Kurds, Assyrians & Arabs under SDF rule as they fled their homes & pondered their future http://bit.ly/2oD9UOt My new piece
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For years, I've been speaking to multiple people living under the control of these factions, where lawlessness prevails. While extremist chants got much attention, these fighters are much more roving bandits than ideologues. More in my forthcoming
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In the 2016 offensive, fighters filmed themselves looting, but following the bruhaha about videos showing extremist chants & field executions, the factions began punishing such media releases. Locals are also often terrified to speak to media on abuses of those ruling them
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While in Efrin we had multiple photos of looting, now there are very few. By stealing phones, fighters are also preventing locals from documenting abuses. This report by Syrian oppo outlet Jisr did document confiscation of homes & theft from civilians http://bit.ly/36jxpwY pic.twitter.com/Ee7ZGbmQG7
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Turkey has only allowed state-owned Turkish and Qatari media, as well as Syrian media activists linked to factions or loyalist outlets to enter the area. Even Syrian opposition outlets not hostile to Turkey but with a professional reputation weren't allowed in.
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In both previous Turkish-led operations relying on their Syrian factions, Syrian fighters engaged in extensive pillaging. While this looting was extensively documented in Efrin (2018) & al-Bab ("Euphrates Shield Operation," 2016), this time it's been harder to confirm.
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Some fighters are attempting to prevent looting & return property to their owners. Still, a lot has been stolen. A fighter with the Levant Front told me "many of those who joined the [Turkish-backed] factions did so for the war spoils & money"
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Syrian fighters tell me large items, commonly looted in previous ops, such as fridges, couches, aren't stolen. No land route from the area to other than through Turkey. Instead, they steal smaller items. Here women describe having gold & cash stolen by fighters from Aleppopic.twitter.com/JLa0xmLoaE
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Fighters are breaking into homes and stealing valuables. If locals did not flee, they are threatened at gunpoint to hand over property. Fighters often accuse those whom they're robbing of having ties to the PYD/YPG, even though those individuals fled during the offensive.
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The fighters were allowed to loot offices of local admin & capture materiel left behind by the SDF, but attempted to limit looting of private property by setting up checkpoints. "But no one can stop the mighty Syrian people," jokingly said a fighter deployed in Tel Abyad.
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I've been able to confirm reports of pillaging (a war crime) in the ongoing Turkish-led offensive on NE Syria. According to sources inside the Turkish-backed factions, Syrian fighters have confiscated private homes, stolen cars, gold, mobile phones, cash.
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At least two people were killed. Russia is intensifying its airstrikes on the last opposition-held pocket in Syria, home to 3 million civilians.https://twitter.com/simonajeger/status/1189838094092185600…
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
Dating the outbreak of extremist Islamism to the Western invasion of Iraq is tempting; but historically inaccurate, and centres the West *too much* as the source of upheaval. Well-meaning, perhaps, but it unnecessarily denies agency of those on the ground.
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
In Tahrir, ground zero for
#Iraq's protest movements, demonstrators bring down stereotypes & build up bridges - via@AFPhttps://www.france24.com/en/20191030-protestors-bond-over-falafel-and-tuk-tuks-at-iconic-baghdad-square… -
Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
Oil workers in southern Iraq are joining the protest movement. Demonstrations are targeting oil sites. Political pressure on the government has been intense all month; now, the first signs of risk to the state's economic lifeblood.https://www.iraqoilreport.com/news/rising-tide-of-iraqi-protest-movement-reaches-oil-sector-42217/…
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
"The [
#Egypt] government is using familiar tools, such as mass arrests and torture, as well as new tactics centered on high-tech surveillance and restricting social media to silence dissent and free speech." via@washingtonposthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypt-expands-its-crackdown-to-target-foreigners-journalists-and-even-children/2019/10/30/d83ef1ae-f1a2-11e9-b2da-606ba1ef30e3_story.html… -
I think we officially found the person with least self-awareness on earthhttps://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1189722490819481600…
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McKenzie probably referring to the ISIS insider who turned on Baghdadi after being recruited by the SDF https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/islamic-state-turncoat-inside-baghdadis-hideout-critical-to-success-of-raid-officials-say/2019/10/29/e702c2fa-fa86-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html#click=https://t.co/zWOYHu2pPS …https://twitter.com/rabrowne75/status/1189665813277683712…
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
My great grandmother Arexi as well. She arrived to Deir Ezzor one of the last survivors of her family as a young girl. Many of her family perished during the march. Soon after she met and married my great grandfather.
#ArmenianGenocidehttps://twitter.com/derekjgz/status/1189543345707716608… -
Infuriating statement from
@UNIraq making excuses for the corruption-riddled Iraqi government. What "cycle of violence"? Unarmed people come into the streets & get killed by snipers.https://twitter.com/UNIraq/status/1189509684472041472…
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
#Iraq![🇮🇶](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="72" height="72"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg> "Flag of Iraq")
: over the past weeks the Turkish restaurant tower overlooking Tahrir Square in #Baghdad was a main position for government snipers targeting people down below. This morning it was taken over by hundreds of protesterspic.twitter.com/VGoWc8JgoH
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
#BREAKING 100 dead, over 5,000 wounded in week of Iraq violence, according to rights commissionpic.twitter.com/j2xkp9YN6b
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Nasriya, Iraq, were protesters were tortured and killed by government forces refuses to back down. More on repression of protests in Iraq by
@belkiswille https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/10/iraq-lethal-force-used-against-protesters …https://twitter.com/Hamzoz/status/1189580710358769664…
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
Last night in Basra, protesters singing the national anthem.pic.twitter.com/2hZMqWT0rI
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At least 6 injured as the Lebanese Army opened fire and shot teargas at protesters in 'Abdeh Sq in Akkar, northern Lebanon. via
@chehayebkhttps://twitter.com/NBakkour/status/1189622866620436487…
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Syrian refugees from Rukban camp fear execution in regime 'reception centres' http://bit.ly/2WrYPMA Amazing reportage based on phone calls with the detainees. A UN official told me recently the Rukban "evacuations" could serve as a model once the regime attacks Idlib.
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Over 130,000 fled Efrîn during the Turkish invasion. Due to daily abuses & destruction of the local economy by commanders of Turkish-backed factions, some Kurds left more recently. Kurds & Assyrians would face real risk if they return to live under these factions.
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I have interviewed multiple Efrîn residents, Kurds (not affiliated with the PYD/YPG), Arab settlers and Turkish-backed fighters squatting in Kurdish homes. They describe ongoing war-profiteering & daily abuses such as kidnappings for ransom, property confiscation, theft.
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The area between Ras al-Ayn & Tel Abyad is largely Arab. Some IDPs have returned to their homes to live under Turkish control. The Turkish-backed factions are now pushing into Syriac & Kurdish-majority areas, raising the real threat of demographic re-engineering, Efrîn 2.0.
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In the face of advances by the Turkish-backed factions, the Syrian regime soldiers sent to the area as part of a Damascus-SDF deal are largely withdrawing/escaping. Regime forces fled Til Temir, Dirbêsiyê and Amûdê.
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As Turkish-backed factions continue to advance deeper into NE Syria, in violation of their deals with Russia & US, they are encroaching on Syriac-majority areas, now largely empty of inhabitants fleeing south and east, away from the front-lines.https://twitter.com/SyriacMFS/status/1189596775629414400…
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The only consistent Progressive policy on Iran has been a return to JCPOA. Iran hawks often tout human rights abuses but don't actually care about them consistently. Shouldn't Progressives advance policies intended to protect ppl from Iran's malign regional & domestic policies?
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The space on discourse on Iran is largely divided between hawks offering immoral policy prescriptions (sanctions affecting average Iranians) & anti-imperialist-leaning analysts offering sympathetic accounts of Iranian policy-making, policies that produce immense human suffering.
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As recent crackdowns on peaceful protests by pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Lebanon show, Tehran is a deeply reactionary and malign actor. Syria was not the exception. We really need a middle ground in the debate around Iran & its regional influence.
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
Wow. "The day after anti-government protests erupted in Iraq, Qassim Soleimani flew into Baghdad... and surprised a group of top security officials by chairing a meeting in place of the prime minister."https://apnews.com/62642940e3fe4b1b87323decc9487fea…
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לדברי גורם בלשכת שר החוץ, "מדובר ביוזמה שבגיבוש כעת". לדברי בכיר כורדי בצפון-מזרח סוריה, הם לא קיבלו סיוע הומניטרי כלשהו מישראל מאז הפלישה התורכית שהביאה לבריחתם של מעל 100,000 איש מבתיהם.
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חשבון הטוויטר של ישראל בערבית מדווח כי ישראל כץ קרא ליוון להצטרף ליוזמה הישראלית לסיוע לכורדים בסוריה. רק שאין שום זכר בתקשורת ליוזמה כזו ולדברי כתב לעניינים מדיניים מדובר ב"חרטא"
@Israel_katzhttps://twitter.com/IsraelArabic/status/1189518498814402561…
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Elizabeth Tsurkov Retweeted
Very hectic day around Tel Tamer. We saw +200 SAA soldiers retreating from villages on the frontlines. Wounded regime soldiers told us that they were overwhelmed by Turkish proxies “they had heavy weapons and air support”. We also saw two US convoys heading towards Ain Issa (1)
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