#syriasly

KURDISH POLITICAL STRUGGLES

Syria’s north and northeast is the historical home of a majority Kurdish population. Kurds also populate northern Iraq and southern Turkey. The Kurds have been denied cultural, linguistic, and political rights throughout the history of modern Syria. More broadly, the Kurds have been a stateless people, with the partial exception of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region.

 

After the uprising against the Assad administration began, a process of consolidation began among various Syrian Kurdish political groups. Eventually, the Kurdish Supreme Committee formed, backed by an armed wing known as the Population Protection Units, or PYG.

 

Shortly after the armed uprising began, the PYG took over several previously government-controlled areas as the government retreated. This raised suspicion among the armed opposition that the Kurds had reached some sort of agreement with the Assad regime. Officially, however, the Kurds remained neutral, believing that neither side had their best interests in mind. The north of Syria saw Kurdish armed forces sporadically clash with both government and armed opposition forces. In February 2013, the PYG and FSA brigades reached an agreement. The Kurdish forces sided with the opposition.

Kurdish armed opposition has been battling Jabhat al-Nusra as well as the Islamic State since 2012. Turkey has historically had poor relations and often violent confrontations with the majority-ethnic Kurdish area of Turkey, and there has been speculation that Turkey aided initial jihadist attacks on the Syria’s Kurdish north.