SDF General Commander, Mazloum Abdi, published a powerful and clear op-ed in the Washington Post calling on the international community to "immediately take concrete steps to prevent a Turkish invasion and to promote a political solution to the Kurdish conflict based on democracy, coexistence and equal rights."

General Abdi said clearly that what Kurds want and are trying to build is peace, not war. He wrote: "We ask no one to fight for us. My people are still here because we have resisted alone countless times before. If we must, we will resist again. What we ask is for the world to be with us in a more difficult task: peace."

General Abdi wrote: "We believe that the roots of the conflicts that have brought so much pain and suffering to our region are political. There is no inherent hatred between Kurds and Turks: Turkish leaders have made the political choice to see Kurds as a security threat and deny us our fundamental democratic rights. In the past, Erdogan has negotiated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to end the armed conflict between the group and the Turkish state and resolve the Kurdish question by peaceful means."

He underlined that "when those talks were taking place, we lived in peace with our Turkish neighbors. If they were to restart, we would be able to do so again," and added that "when our region was under threat in 2019, the PKK offered, in this very newspaper, to sit down and seek a political solution. The call went unanswered, and Turkey invaded and occupied two of our cities just months later."

General Abdi said that "had the international community stood firmly against a Turkish invasion and spoken up for peace, things may have gone very differently. Though no one can turn back time, we can learn from the tragedies of the past."

He therefore said: "We declare that we are ready to play a helpful role in restarting these talks and reaching the peace that we seek."