The fight of Kurds for self-determination was dealt serious blows when Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa sent forces in January to seize the autonomous zone controlled for years by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria. Washington backed al-Sharaa’s move and has dropped its earlier support for the Kurdish zone, but Kurds continue to resist the Syrian government offensive in the city of Kobane.
Kurds make up 10% of Syria’s population of 23 million. Over 30 million Kurds, the world’s largest nationality without their own homeland, are divided between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. They have waged a long fight for national rights in each of those countries following the carve-up of the Middle East by the imperialist rulers in London and Paris after World War I.
The Syrian army drove the SDF out of Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo, killing at least 82 people Jan. 6-11, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. Most later returned.
The Syrian army then advanced into SDF-held territory in the northeast, seizing majority-Arab cities like Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, along with key oil fields. A U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the SDF Jan. 30 imposed Syrian domination over many areas formerly run by the SDF.
Syrian government forces replaced SDF fighters in two other Kurdish-majority cities, Qamishli and Hasakah. The agreement establishes a new military division for the northeast that will include three SDF brigades.
Syrian armed forces have besieged Kobane, a mainly Kurdish town in the north of the country. The people of Kobane withstood a brutal Islamic State siege in 2014-15, which was backed by the rulers of Turkey.
The current offensive has displaced over 200,000 people, Sheikhmous Ahmed, who oversees displacement camps, told Rudaw Feb. 10. In Kobane people face a dire situation with basic services like water, power, baby food and medicines cut off.
Ahmed said that Syrian government forces have killed several people in villages south of Kobane, while Kurdish property in Raqqa and elsewhere has been looted.
Protests by Kurds against the Syrian government offensive have spread across the Middle East and beyond. In Turkey Jan. 20 over 1,000 marched in Nusaybin. In Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, protesters demanded the protection of Kurdish national rights in Syria.
Trump advances U.S. rulers’ interests
Just over a year ago, al-Sharaa, a former leader of al-Qaeda, led Islamist groups, some backed by the Turkish government, to topple the weakened Bashar al-Assad regime. It had been propped up for years by Moscow and Tehran, but the rulers in Iran withdrew their forces shortly before Assad’s overthrow. Al-Sharaa is now trying to impose his control across the country, especially over its different nationalities and religions.
President Donald Trump swung his backing behind al-Sharaa. The U.S. rulers see better relations with him as a way to advance their domination and access to resources in the region. Washington handed over its main military base in Syria at al-Tanf to Syrian forces Feb. 11.
In Aleppo, “we didn’t have any serious problems like what happened on the coast or in Sweida,” Ali Sheikh Ahmad, a former SDF policeman who now runs a clothing shop there, told the Associated Press. He was referring to violent assaults by pro-government Islamist thugs that killed hundreds of members of the Alawite and Druze minorities last year. Like many Syrians, Sheikh Ahmad has been displaced many times since the Assad regime brutally repressed popular protests in 2011.
Shortly after the Washington-backed deal was imposed, the Syrian government recognized Kurdish as a national language alongside Arabic and adopted Norwruz, a Kurdish celebration, as a national holiday. It also restored rights to tens of thousands of Kurds who had been stripped of citizenship by the Syrian rulers in 1962.
Al-Sharaa appointed Noureddin Issa, a Kurdish official, as governor of the Hasakah region in the formerly autonomous zone Feb. 14.
For over a decade, Washington had relied heavily on Kurdish troops to help it defeat Islamic State, which had seized one-third of Syrian territory.
Alongside the U.S. rulers, regional capitalist powers from Turkey to Saudi Arabia are also driving to extend their influence in Syria.
The Turkish rulers are providing arms supplies and military training to Syrian government forces and are pushing to get access to Syrian air bases. They’ve long pushed for an end to Syria’s Kurdish-led autonomous zone, fearing it sets an example to Kurds at home who are also fighting for their national rights.