KURDS/SYRIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TURKEY: “President Trump on Wednesday [10-16-19] defended his abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria, seeking to counter international and bipartisan criticism as Turkey continued its offensive against the Kurds. Here’s an assessment of his remarks at two events on Wednesday. WHAT MR. TRUMP SAID ‘Now, the P.K.K., which is a part of the Kurds, as you know, is probably worse at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than ISIS.’ False. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., is a separatist group primarily composed of Turkish Kurds with deep ties to Kurdish militias that joined with other groups to form the Syrian Democratic Forces, which has been fighting the Islamic State, or ISIS, in Syria. The United States considers those Kurdish-led militias key allies in the fight against ISIS, but has designated the P.K.K. a terrorist organization since 1987. Still, it’s a huge stretch to compare the group to ISIS.”
–Linda Qiu, “Fact-Checking Trump on Syria, Erdogan and the Kurds,” The New York Times online, October 16, 2019