ECR Condemns F-16 Sale to Turkey

Emergency Committee for Rojava Condemns Approval of F-16 Sale for Turkey

1/28/2024

The Emergency Committee for Rojava condemns Senator Ben Cardin’s decision to approve the sale of up to 40 new American-made F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in exchange for its cooperation in Sweden’s bid for NATO membership. 

As Turkish planes and drones continue to rain bombs down on civilians in North-East Syria, this cynical decision will directly enable Turkey’s ongoing war crimes, contradicting Senator Cardin’s stated commitment “to ensure that U.S. weapons, equipment, and training are never used to harm civilians”. 

In recent days Turkey has once again used its air power to attack civilian infrastructure in North-East Syria, in its third such bombing campaign since October. These strikes have targeted energy facilities, grain silos, hospitals, factories, resulting in civilian deaths and the disruption of vital services, leaving 2 million people without electricity. Turkey’s actions constitute serious war crimes and violations of a US-brokered ceasefire. 

Turkey has consistently pursued aggressive and expansionist policies throughout the region, including its escalating attacks on the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, and its consistent targeting of civilians and minority groups including Kurds, Yezidis, Armenians and Assyrians. 

In approving the weapons sale, Sen. Cardin has stated that he is “encouraged by the productive direction of [the Biden Administration’s] discussions with Turkish officials to address” issues such as “holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine, and on lowering the temperature in its rhetoric about the Middle East.”

We strongly disagree. There is no evidence whatsoever that Cardin or the Biden administration has had any positive effect on Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism and aggressive posture toward the people of North-East Syria. The Erdogan regime continues to arrest and jail journalists and opposition politicians in Turkey and has been systematically attacking the essential infrastructure and innocent people of the Democratic Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) for months. We challenge Cardin to explain exactly how he intends to hold Turkey accountable, and how he can possibly claim that Turkey is not using U.S. weapons to harm civilians.

The sale of any U.S. weapons to the autocratic Erdogan regime is tantamount to U.S. support for Erdogan’s ongoing war against democracy.  We call on elected officials and civil society organizations to join us in publicly condemning this decision and demanding its immediate reversal.