Zakharova:The Kurds Are in Big Trouble, They Actually Believed Uncle Sam’s Promises

Now, let’s go back to the mysterious topic which we had to talk about last week only in telegraph mode. It seems as if there was a prospect of at least some kind of calm in Syria when the operation of Turkey against the Kurds started in the north of the country. The Turks are solving their problems. They’re of such a nature that the UN Security Council, gathered at the initiative of France, limited itself to consultations on this issue. That’s how it is.

Russia withdrew its military observers from this zone in time, called for restraint, but won't the Turkish operation against the Kurds prevent them from participating in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, scheduled for next week in Sochi? We can make judgments about new intrigues emerging around Syria from this Saturday's reports.

 

I'll ask you to be patient, I think I'll be done in a minute, but there's something worthy. A post appeared on Twitter this morning saying that the High Negotiations Committee is going to boycott the Congress in Sochi, saying that it contradicts the Geneva peace talks. Then, Interfax reports that Sergey Vershinin, head of the Middle East Department at the Foreign Ministry, expressed Moscow's hope that the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, would take an affirmative decision on this organization representatives' participation in the Congress in Sochi. In the evening, there was a message from the Sky News Arabia, at first, and then from the official press service, that de Mistura will come to Sochi from the UN. So, there are no contradictions with the UN.

Moreover, the RIA Novosti agency found out that the final resolution project of the Sochi congress will include an address to the UN about the work organization of the constitutional commission. No contradictions with Geneva, again. Later in the evening, a military and political source of Interfax, as they put it, expressed their confidence that the dialog in Sochi will take place and added: "All those who cared about Syria's future, representatives of confessions, parties, public organizations, opposition groups supported by the population, would come to the Congress. And the Congress will take place".

But what about that Turkish operation near Afrin in the north of Syria? As opposed to last week's Turkish statements, the operation turned out to take longer than expected. And most importantly, who’s behind all this? This isn't just the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but its museum and the legendary globe showing the places where World War II decisive conferences were held.

That's where we met with Maria Zakharova.

- Hello, Ms. Zakharova.

Maria Zakharova: Hello.

- I’ve never even paid attention to this globe before. Here are all the conferences: 1943 Tehran, Moscow, Potsdam…

Maria Zakharova: It’s an artifact.

- I have a feeling that the fate of the world is now being determined in Afrin. Aleppo and here.

Maria Zakharova: The globe is old, so all borders, everything is different, and realia, in general, are different.

- They are, but the territorial integrity of Syria is shown quite correctly here.

Maria Zakharova: It’s being preserved now.

- Before I ask you about Afrin, I’ll clarify the remark of the Permanent Representative of France to the UN Security Council, the country which initiated discussions of the Syrian issue at the Security Council. This week, he suggested that Syria wouldn’t necessarily be preserved as a single state. Does this contradict Moscow's position?

Maria Zakharova: I think this isn’t a reservation. This is a real statement already. That’s what our Western colleagues have been thinking about and keeping in mind for many years. We spoke about this recently and noted that all the actions of the so-called coalition, in particular of the US and its closest allies, point out in this game that, unfortunately, the unity, territorial integrity of Syria isn’t on the Western states' agenda.

- Let's come back to the statements of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Russian military was there, but they were withdrawn in time at the beginning of the Turkish operation. Did the Turks really inform Moscow about everything?

Maria Zakharova: You know, I think we need to focus on something completely different here. Recently, we’ve heard a lot of statements from Kurdish politicians, who all together said that Russia allegedly betrayed them. I’d like to remind you, although it seems to me even strange to do it, that it’s the Russian Federation that has for many years spoken of it and called upon the entire international community, which dealt with the Syrian problem, to take the Kurdish factor into account. And I’m now saying this quite gently, but we did it in very concrete terms during the negotiations in multilateral formats and during negotiations with Turkish, American, Middle Eastern colleagues, with everyone. And I think we were doing it absolutely alone. Therefore, our idea and our concept were that by politically involving the Kurds in the negotiation process, given the role they play in the life, in particular, of Syria…

- They’re about 10% of the population.

Maria Zakharova:  It’s possible to move towards a united, multi-religious and multinational, strong and free, democratic Syria. But there were other players who played the national card, the national self-consciousness of the Kurdish population, promised mountains and marvels, some kind of pastures of Heaven. And in many respects, they really betrayed and deceived. Our position is what it has always been. Without the Kurdish people, the advance will be extremely difficult.

- You repeat the position of the Ministry of Defence.

Maria Zakharova: Yes, which isn’t surprising.

- About another aspect. Last Saturday, the Russian military department indicated that it was the Americans who armed the Kurdish forces on the Syrian side, which made Turkey launch this operation.

Maria Zakharova:  And then they were betrayed. Because those messages, those hints and those direct promises, the enthusiasm that the American side gave the Kurdish people, resulted in what we’re now seeing. And this plunges many observers into a state of not just bewilderment, it's on the verge of horror because there’s fierce fighting. The question to the American side: how could they promise and then abandon at the last moment? The question to many who played the national card. And we know that at the heart of almost all conflicts, as a rule, there are questions of national self-awareness and religious factors.

- It turns out that the Americans are choosing, in this case, between the Kurds and the preservation or non-preservation of Turkey in NATO, aren’t they? Does it turn out so?

Maria Zakharova: I think this is a question to American analysts. Actions, as you’ve seen in many years on the example of this region, show that politics is very chaotic, it varies depending on one or another representative of a particular group, establishment and so on. So, I don’t think there’s some kind of a deep motivation here.

- I myself tried to understand it and almost went crazy. Syrian Kurds, Turkish, Iranian, Turkmen-Syrian and so on. But there’s a very clear and obvious plot. Next week, there’ll be not only a meeting of the UN Security Council…

Maria Zakharova: But also a Syrian dialogue in Sochi.

- Where the Russian side also invited the Kurds.

Maria Zakharova: Yes, but we didn’t just invite them, it wasn’t so simple. Because a huge number of players did everything to ensure that the Kurdish population, not even the population, but the Kurdish representatives, wouldn't come here. Our position was unchangeable. We said that a broad dialogue about the fate of a large country, in which the Kurdish population means a lot, was simply impossible in any other way.

- What if the Kurds don’t come?

Maria Zakharova: They will come. The question of who’ll come and who won’t come has been asked very often in recent days. The question is not what’s important for the Russian side, whether they’ll come or not. This isn’t a question of our own self-awareness or any ambitions, it's not about that. This isn’t a competition. We have enough international events which we successfully hold on the Russian territory. It's something different. We give the political parties, the opposition, including the Kurds, all the opportunities, providing the infrastructure and our political influence on the situation. We give them especially designated opportunities for them to start talking about the fate of their country. Therefore, this isn’t a question of our ambitions. The thing is that they can miss their historic opportunity to build anew the state on all the principles that we talked about.

- Thank you, we’re waiting for the next week.