The Chimera of Treason

Siri Dokken, The Betrayal of the Kurds, October 25, 2019.

Let it be seen. Let it be known how the betrayal of the Kurds in early October came about following a phone call between the Presidents Trump and Erdogan permitting the Turks to launch an offensive into northeast Syria that till then had been held by the Syrian Kurds fighting back IS with the support of the US. When the US troops were pulled out, the Kurds were left with no choice but to make a deal with Assad, the murderer of his own people, while the initiative was left in the no less bloodied hands of Putin and Erdogan.

International politics form bodies of leagues and alliances in which burdens are shared while everyone involved is given a reach beyond their own borders. When a betrayal takes place within that body its DNA is damaged.

That body is transformed into a chimera.

Burden is another word for responsibility. The one part of the chimean body is denying having any, but his limp red tie shall forever be linked to the part that carried his burden on her shoulders all along. Siri Dokken composes beyond the picture plane, connecting the focus of the eye of the Kurdish fighter to the greater perspective of what she has achieved and what is now lost.

More than 160,000 Syrian Kurds are estimated to have fled their homes in mid-October. The consequences are as yet not fully known, so before us we have too the chimera of a possible genocide. 

The cartoon shown is courtesy of Siri Dokken and must not be reproduced without her permission.