Protesters in NY call for 'No Fly Zone' in Syria
(9 Oct 2019) Protesters in New York took their concern for family and friends back home in northern Syria to the offices of Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Wednesday. Amid heavy rain and with placards in hand, they're hoping lawmakers will push for a 'No Fly Zone' in the area after President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull back U.S. troops Monday. The move cleared the way for a Turkish invasion Wednesday, abandoning Kurdish fighters who fought alongside American forces to defeat the Islamic State. Protesters like Ozlem Goner and Shira Antar, who are both Kurds, fear for the lives of those in the region. Antar, specifically, says she fears what might happen to her family back home in Syria. "I'm scared for them because I don't know what's going to happen, and they don't know what's going to happen and it's happened before. They've gone into people's houses before and slaughtered their kids," Antar said, referring to the Turkish army. For Goner, a sociology professor at the City University of New York who says her family has been persecuted for decades for being Kurds, the move feels like betrayal, "like we're just turning our backs and saying, 'Sure, Erdogan, enter and kill them all'," she said. "I just feel like I need to stop this with everything I have, with everything everyone has over here because they've paid a huge price," she added. A security official said Turkey's ground forces and Turkish-allied Syrian opposition forces have crossed into an area of northern Syria in a four-pronged offensive. The security official based near Turkey's border with Syria would not say how many troops were involved in the ground operation that began Wednesday hours after Turkish jets and artillery pounded Syrian Kurdish targets in the region and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
