Jilted Kurds ignore Western hand-wringing over Syria gas attack
The Syrian Kurds have been notably silent on US President Donald Trump’s threat to punish Damascus over a suspected chemical attack on Douma, likely disillusioned and choosing to focus on condemning Turkey's ongoing offensive in Afrin.
![AFP_Y37HD TOPSHOT - A Syrian Kurdish fighter walks in the town of Rajo in the Afrin District on January 27, 2018.
Turkish troops and tanks entered northern Syria on January 21 in an offensive aimed at ousting the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a terror group, from the Afrin region bordering Turkey. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER (Photo credit should read STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2018/04/GettyImages-911261716.jpg/GettyImages-911261716.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=4NVJLZfN)
As stakeholders in Syria’s seven-year conflict remain glued to US President Donald Trump’s tweets, one group has remained noticeably silent: Turkey’s biggest bugbear and the United States’ top ally, the Kurds.
Ever since the American leader vowed via Twitter to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over a suspected chemical attack on Douma, the dominant Kurdish political group in Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its armed affiliate the People’s Protection Units (YPG) have refrained from airing views on whether or how the United States should respond.