‘Will the US Army stand by idly while we are killed?’: Syriac Christians Ask for US Protection Against New Turkish Offensive
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Christians in northern Syria are calling on the US government to intervene as signs mount that a new wave of Turkish incursions into the country is imminent.
The Syriac Military Council (MFS), a US-supported militia in the struggle against ISIS, sent out a memo on July 17th to the effect that the Turkish army had removed a border wall in the Tal-Abyad area of northern Syria, positioning its jihadist proxies for war.
“It clearly aims to invade Northern Syria,” the Council explained. “Turkey aims to kill and destroy us and to finish the genocide against our people…We hope and pray that as we have defended the world against ISIS, the world will not abandon us now.”
The more than 100,000 Syriac Christians living in northern Syria comprise one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world, but have been slated for destruction by ISIS and other jihadist forces that Turkey has used as proxies in its war against the Kurds.
US officials speculate the renewal of a Turkish offensive against its allies in the region could be a reprisal for Trump’s decision to expel Turkish fighter pilots from the NATO F-35 program, a cautionary measure taken by the US after Turkey cross-pollinated its military by purchasing the Russian S-400 missile defense system in early July.