The downfall of the Asad regime in Syria has once again put focus on the Kurdish issue in the region, as they control 30 percent of the country
By Iftikhar Gilani
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, the opposition Syrian National Army (SNA) has managed to gain control of most parts of the country, but the centre of gravity has now shifted to north-eastern Syria.
This region borders Iran, Türkiye and Iraq and is under the control of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Although the Kurds make up only 10% of the Syrian population, they currently occupy 30% of Syrian territory, which includes several Arab-majority towns and villages. Türkiye and the Arab countries favour a strong central government in Syria, but it appears that the US is aiming for a federal system similar to that in Iraq.
This plan includes granting full autonomy to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), which is controlled by the Kurds in the north-east. At the same time, the Alawite sect would retain control over Latakia and the surrounding areas, while the Druze in the Golan Heights region would be granted partial autonomy.
The Kurds, who number over 50 million people, are an ethnic group without their own state. Historically, the Kurds, unlike the Turks, are indigenous to the Middle East. The Turks migrated to this region from Central Asia and other areas.
The Kurds are scattered over a wide geographical area, including Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Jordan, the Balkans and Russia. There is even a region in Russia called Bashkortostan, where Kurds may have been the majority in the past. However, their main presence is in Türkiye, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The history of the Kurdish people is a history of rebellion, betrayal, wars and brief successes. The Kurdish language, with dialects such as Kurmanji, Sorani and Zaza, belongs to the Indo-European language family and is distinct from Arabic, Persian and Turkish.
Historically, the Kurds founded several independent states, such as Mitanni, the Median Empire, the Shaddadid dynasty, the Emirate of Botan, the Hakkari Emirate, the Marwanid state, the Ayyubid dynasty and the last independent Kurdish state, the Republic of Mahabad in present-day Iran.
The Kurds have produced notable figures such as Salahuddin Ayyubi, who defeated the Crusaders and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. While 90 per cent of Kurds are Sunni Muslims, some of them are Alawite also. Most Kurdish Muslims follow the Shafiite school of thought, in contrast to the Turkish majority, which is largely Hanafi.
Their tension with the Arab states began when the socialist Baath parties gained the upper hand under the banner of Arab nationalism. In Türkiye, strict secularism led to religious restrictions, resulting in Kurdish uprisings and massacres in the 1930s. Like the Pashtuns, the Kurds are also considered highly religious, as visits to the majority of Kurdish provinces in eastern Türkiye such as Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa show, where the mosques are still populated by believers.
However, it is a bitter irony that this religious ethnic group is now perceived as an ally of Israel and the US amid political rivalries and tensions in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Türkiye.
Israel and Kurds
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Israel has repeatedly bombed Syria to destroy the country’s defence infrastructure, with the aim of weakening Syria so that it cannot take action against Israel. Experts say the other objective of Tel Aviv is to secure Kurdish autonomous areas.
They argue that Israel is attempting to expand Kurdish territory till the Druze-populated Golan region to drive out the Arab population. They plan to settle Kurds and Druze along the borders to make them secure. Israel also hopes to destabilise Türkiye through the Kurds.
In north-east Syria, the Kurdish military group YPG (People’s Protection Units) dominates the autonomous administration. The YPG is an important component of the SDF, similar to the way Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) dominates the Syrian National Army (SNA).
With US support, the YPG-led SDF played a crucial role in defeating ISIS. Under President Barack Obama, the US had promised the Kurds autonomy in north-east Syria after the elimination of ISIS, similar to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
However, Türkiye, a NATO ally of the US, viewed the rise of Kurdish forces in Syria as a direct threat. Türkiye regards the YPG as a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against Türkiye for four decades and has already claimed 40,000 lives.
To counter this threat, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched two major military operations to create buffer zones along the Turkish-Syrian border.
In 2016, Operation Euphrates Shield was directed against ISIS but also stopped Kurdish advances west of the Euphrates. In 2019, Operation Spring of Peace directly weakened Kurdish forces by capturing Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain and deploying Turkish troops there.
In order to curb Kurdish influence, Türkiye has openly supported the Syrian opposition party SNA and supplied it with drones and fighter jets, enabling it to capture two important towns, Tal Rifaat and Manbij, from the Kurds.
According to reports, local Arab tribes in these regions broke away from Kurdish control and tried to join Damascus by asking the SNA for help. The commander-in-chief of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, confirmed the advance of the SNA and the defection of the Arab commanders. Another Kurdish commander, Mazloum Kobani, explained that their fight was not just about survival, but about dignity and recognition.
The well-known Turkish journalist Mehmet Ozturk attributes the Kurdish question largely to the legacy of the First World War. In the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds were an essential part of the imperial structure and defended the mountain and border regions.
Türkiye and Kurds
However, after the collapse of the empire and the establishment of a secular government in 1923, Türkiye targeted the Kurds because of their strong religious affiliation. In 1937-38, the Turkish government bombed Tunceli to suppress the uprising in Dersim, which led to massacres.
President Erdogan officially apologised for the Dersim massacre in 2011, but these areas remain impoverished and underdeveloped, which also perpetuated the unrest.
Founded by Kurdish students at Ankara University in 1980, the PKK adopted Marxist-Leninist ideology and strived for ethnic separatism. The PKK received international support and posed a major challenge to the Turkish security forces as it gained influence in the major cities of the south-eastern regions.
Türkiye accused Syria of supporting the rebellion and harbouring PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. In view of the increasing tensions and the Turkish threat of military intervention, Syria expelled Öcalan under diplomatic pressure.
When Öcalan sought asylum in various countries in 1999, he was arrested by the Turkish secret service in Kenya and extradited to Türkiye. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after being held responsible for 30,000 deaths.
According to Mehmet Ozturk, Syria itself denied its Kurds citizenship while supporting their activities in Türkiye.
The militant Kurdish organisation later ventured into politics and founded the Social Democratic Party. Today it operates under the name People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEHP) and is the third largest political force in Türkiye.
The party has 57 seats in the Turkish parliament. Another Kurdish party, Huda-Par, which represents Islamist Kurds, has four members of parliament and is often associated with Türkiye’s Hezbollah.
When Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party came to power, it included a considerable number of Kurdish MPs. The current Turkish government includes several Kurdish ministers, including Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Even today, Erdogan’s party has around 60 Kurdish MPs.
In the last presidential elections, Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who gave him a tough fight, was also Kurdish. Interestingly, Kilicdaroglu is an Alevi Kurd, a very small minority.
Curiously, Kurds make up about 15-20 per cent of the Turkish population, yet their birth rate is five times higher than that of Turks. This trend could significantly change the population balance in the future.
Today, there are about four million mixed families in Türkiye in which Kurds have married non-Kurds. The largest Kurdish-populated city in the world is currently Istanbul.
In Iraq, the Kurds have an autonomous region known as the Kurdistan Regional Autonomous Government. Both the current President of Iraq, Abdul Latif Rashid, and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein are Kurds. The region is dominated by two major Kurdish parties – the Barzani Party and the Talabani Party – which often struggle for influence.
Before the Syrian civil war, the Kurds were severely discriminated against, including being denied citizenship rights. During the war, the Kurds allied themselves with the US and now control around 30% of Syrian territory with Western support. In Iran, as in Türkiye, the Kurds are not recognised as a separate ethnic group. They are doubly discriminated against because they are Sunni Muslims and ethnically Kurdish.
According to Ozturk, after the military coup in Türkiye in 1980, the Kurdish language was banned, and it was forbidden to speak it in public places. The Kurds have long demanded basic education in their mother tongue. Erdogan’s AK Party lifted several restrictions after coming to power in 2002.
A Kurdish-language television channel was launched on the state broadcaster TRT, and the Anadolu news agency established a Kurdish-language wing. But there are many things that still remain unaddressed.
Kurdish Activist Explains
The spokesperson of the Kurdish National Congress’s foreign policy committee, Nilofar Koç, explained that the only solution to the Kurdish question lies in the creation of a federal and decentralised government.
In an interview, she said the Kurds’ goal was not to create separate regions in Iraq or Syria, but to achieve autonomy and coexistence within a democratic framework.
She defended the alliances with the US and Western countries, saying that these partnerships had prevented Türkiye and other countries from committing genocide against the Kurds.
“This is a milestone in Kurdish diplomacy” In return, the Kurdish fighters have eradicated ISIS.
She emphasised that the autonomous administration in North and East Syria represents a secular, multi-layered and inclusive governance model based on the coexistence of different communities.
When asked about the regional perception that the fate of Syria should be decided by Syrians alone, given the involvement of Kurdish activists from Iraq and elsewhere, Koç replied that Kurdish unity was a priority regardless of location.
She described this not as interference, but as safeguarding collective Kurdish interests. “The liberation of north-east Syria is only possible through the unity of the Kurds in Türkiye, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the diaspora,” she said.
She lamented that the traditional Kurdish groups in Iraqi Kurdistan often prioritise financial interests in favour of Türkiye.
Koç pointed out that Iraq has been striving for a federal solution since 2003, while the Syrian Kurds have been working on establishing an autonomous administration since 2012.
“This model offers a framework for inclusive governance without the need to redraw borders in Iran and Türkiye,” she said.
She added that the support of the West, particularly the US, remains crucial for the survival of the Kurds.
On the future of Kurds, she believed that in Iraq, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) must overcome internal disputes and reach lasting agreements with Baghdad. In Syria, the future of Kurdish autonomy depends on negotiations with Ankara and Damascus, facilitated by US mediation.
The path of the Kurds in the Middle East remains unstable.
Although no country in the region will support the creation of an independent Kurdish state and such a movement will be suppressed with might, as it has been in the past, Kurdish activists insist that they will continue their struggle until they are recognised and given their rightful place in society.
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