The Syrian Kurds and the PYD (original) (raw)
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The Syrian Kurds and the Democratic Union Party: The Outsider in the Syrian War
Mediterranean Quarterly, 2017
By June 2016, the Kurds of Syria (just 12 percent of the country's total population) controlled almost all of the 822-kilometer Turkish-Syrian border and advanced against Manbij and Raqqa — the Islamic State's resupply center and capital, respectively. How did the Syrian Kurds grow from pariahs to kingmakers in northern Syria? This essay surveys the strategy of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the most powerful organization among the Syrian Kurds, from 2011 until the first half of 2016, and shows how the PYD's realpolitik secured the party's survival and, eventually, success in the midst of a vicious sectarian civil war.
Sowing Division: Kurds in the Syrian War
Middle East Policy, 2017
He holds a PhD from the LSE and his research examines ethnic conflict and the causes of political moderation. His book on the conflict in Northern Ireland is forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press in 2017. Kurdish groups, both within Syria and throughout the Middle East, undoubtedly see the Syrian war as an opportunity to advance their goals of self-determination. The Kurdish autonomous region of Rojava is held up as proving the viability and necessity of Kurdish self-rule within any future Syria, with Kurdish leader Idris Nassan declaring that "federalism should be the future." 1 In addition, key events throughout the conflict were seized upon by Kurdish leaders in Turkey and Iraq to generate support for their causes. A strong Kurdish presence at the forefront of resistance to ISIS was used to leverage support from the EU and the United States for Kurdish goals. 2 The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) drew on its close relationship with Syria's armed Kurdish group, the YPG (People's Protection Units), to further increase its influence across the border. Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan
The Kurds in Syria: Fueling Separatist Movements in the Region?
2009
This report examines the relations between the Kurds and the Syrian state, traces the development of Kurdish political organization in Syria and the relationship between the Kurds and the Syrian prodemocracy movement, shows how the status of Syria' s Kurds has implications not only for stability within Syria but also for security throughout the region, and offers policy recommendations for the Syrian government and other international actors in the region.
The Kurdish factor in the Syrian revolution
2013
Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 In the beginning of the revolution, Kurdish youth has played a relevant role in the setting of an agenda in which “democracy” and “dignity” became keywords. However, traditional political parties and forces (e.g., the PYD/PKK and the KNC) currently dominate the political scene. Whilst the KNC has been successful in assimilating independent youth activists to their own political agenda, the PYD and their militias dominate the KNC. Both the KNC and PYD have acted as obstacles rather than as driving forces for democratization. Five decades of Baʿthist rule obviously undermined the significance of the Kurdish political parties as an alternative to the existing political system. Thus far, neither PYD nor KNC has developed a meaningful agenda for the Syrian Kurds after the revolution. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Normale Tabelle"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-st...
Unity or PYD Power Play? Syrian Kurdish Dynamics After the Erbil Agreement
On 11th July, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Kurdish National Council (KNC; a group of 15 Syrian Kurdish groups in Syria), signed an agreement to prevent Kurdish infighting and to jointly administer the Kurdish areas of Syria with the newly-created Supreme Kurdish Council (SKC). Following this accord, henceforth referred to as the Erbil Agreement, fighters associated with the PYD took over the Kurdish districts and areas of the Hasakah and Aleppo governorates. These developments, which took Turkey and the international community by surprise, have serious implications for Syria’s future, both nationally and regionally. On a national level, they further complicate a problem which has been left unresolved since the beginning of the Syrian uprising: Kurdish demands for federalism or autonomy ahead of the backdrop of a general failure of the Arab opposition to agree to a decentralized post-Assad political system. (Syria’s Kurds make up anywhere between 10-to-15 percent of the national population.) On the regional level, the presence of armed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria (known to be affiliated with the PKK in southern Turkey) has gravely exercised Ankara whilst also increasing the geopolitical profile of Massoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG), who has been heavily involved in supporting and mediating crises between the Syrian Kurdish factions. This report will first examine the external and internal effects that the Supreme Kurdish Council (SKC) and the Erbil Agreement have had on the Syrian uprising and to what extent the Agreement has been implemented on the ground. The report will then take a closer look at the regional and international actors involved in resolving Syria’s Kurdish Question, and then offer policy recommendations. As an update on intramural Kurdish dynamics in Syria, this report can be seen as a sequel-of-sorts to a previous Henry Jackson Society publication: The Decisive Minority: The Critical Role of Syria’s Kurds in the Anti-Assad Revolution.
Middle East Journal , 2023
This article examines the international legitimacy of the main Kurdish militia in northern Syria, the People's Defense Units (YPG), and its affiliated political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Despite their origins in the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization in many countries, the YPG and PYD were anointed as partners of the Global Coalition against Daesh/ISIS and have been celebrated in Western capitals and press ever since. To understand this unusual trajectory, this article argues that, although defeating ISIS opened a "possibility space" for this alliance to emerge, the YPG and PYD's discursive and practical legitimation strategies have contributed to their remarkable international diplomatic standing. This position nevertheless remains perilous, largely due to an insurmountable barrier: Turkey.
"The Kurds of Syria," Arab Studies Journal, Fall 2017, Vol 25, No 2. pp. 226-236.
Review Essay: OUT OF NOWHERE: THE KURDS OF SYRIA IN PEACE AND WAR Michael M. Gunter London: C. Hurst and Co., 2014 (176 pages, bibliography, index) £35.00 (cloth) THE KURDS OF SYRIA: POLITICAL PARTIES AND IDENTITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST Harriet Allsopp London: I. B. Tauris, 2015 (320 pages, bibliography, index, illustrations) $25.00 (paper) LA QUESTION KURDE:PASSEÉ ET PRÉESENT Jordi Tejel Gorgas Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014 (144 pages, bibliography) 12.00 € (paper)