Have Western nations abandoned the Kurds?

World leaders have been reluctant to take a stand against the Turkish assault on Afrin

Syria war
A young boy flees the Turkish military offensive in Afrin 
(Image credit: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

Western governments have been accused of turning a blind eye to a humanitarian crisis in the Syrian enclave of Afrin after Turkey launched a military offensive in the Kurdish-held region earlier this year.

Hundreds of people, many of them civilians, have been killed by air strikes and artillery as Turkish troops and their allied militias push into Afrin, in northern Syria, and more than 250,000 people have been forced to flee.

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