The five-day long ceasefire agreement negotiated between the U.S. and Turkey has come to an end.<br />This comes as Syrian Kurds flee after losing protection from the United States, its long ally in the region.<br />Hong Yoo reports.<br />Displaced by war, thousands of Syrian Kurds are fleeing to neighboring Iraq to escape Turkey's military offensive.<br />Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia that have never obtained a state for their own.<br />Among them, the Syrian Kurds residing in the northeastern part of Syria are mostly the Syrian Democratic Forces, a force that's part of the YPG militia.<br />Turkey sees them as a terrorist group because of their links to Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey.<br />Because of this, Turkey aims to create a 32 kilometer "safe zone" to clear out Kurdish fighters.<br />Kurdish fighters had been protected by the U.S. until President Trump abruptly decided to withdraw a small batch of U.S. troops,... paving the way for Turkey to launch an attack on the SDP on October 9th.<br />Trump's decision faced bipartisan criticism but Trump defended his action saying he was keeping his campaign promise of reducing U.S. troop presence overseas.<br />Then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was sent to Ankara to negotiate a ceasefire agreement in which the U.S. agreed not to pursue the further imposition of sanctions on Turkey if Ankara promised to stop fighting in the buffer zone.<br />The U.S. had 5 days to withdraw all SDF from the zone until Tuesday 10pm local time.<br />When the truce came to an end, the commander of SDF fighters informed the U.S that all SDF forces had left the area<br />On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed on a deal in Sochi to remove SDP from the Syria border by deploying Syrian and Russian forces.<br />The forces will then replace the American troops that have guarded the region for years together with the Kurds.<br />Hong Yoo, Arirang News.<br />
