It is still hard to foresee the future of Syria, but we can say that the dream of forming an autonomous region in the north that would be ruled by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian affiliate of the outlawed PKK, and that would somehow reach to the shores of the east of Mediterranean Sea is falling apart.

Operation Euphrates Shield, the first cross-border operation from the Turkish military and Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Syria, cleansed the Daesh terrorists from the territory between Afrin and Manbij, where the PYD's People's Protection Units (YPG) militia had been looking for an opportunity to seize and capture. If that had happened, the YPG elements in Syria would have been able to merge all the PYD's self-declared cantons. Thus, it would think there were a few steps left to extend the land under its control to the Mediterranean Sea, and so, they would argue that they formed an economically self-sufficient and viable statelet. This anticipation was obviously triggered the dreams of doing the same in southeastern Turkey, the PKK's resume to fight against the Turkish state in July of 2015, as fed by this desire, but failed.

Recently, the YPG lost the fight in Afrin to Turkey and the FSA, which has already vowed to give the lands back to its local owners. Western media is blind and deaf to see, but Operation Olive Branch has been highly welcomed by the Kurds who did not want to live under the oppression of the PYD.

In August 2011, a coalition of opposition groups formed the Syrian National Council (SNC) in hopes of establishing a democratic, pluralistic alternative to Assad. A coalition of 12 Kurdish parties started to negotiate with the Syrian opposition to form a united coalition in the fall of 2011. Mashaal Tammo, a well-known Kurdish politician and activist who defended Kurdish interests and who was released in 2010 after spending more than three years in prison since his outspoken vision for a pluralistic democratic Syria angered both Assad and his rivals, also joined the SNC and became a member of the executive committee.

In the meantime, Damascus was in talks with the PYD. In October 2011, masked men assassinated Tammo. The next day, more than 50,000 Kurds marched through Qamishli to protest his assassination. Security forces killed five. It was reported that the PYD might have killed Tammo in order to indulge a request from Assad.

The YPG captured Kobani on July 19, 2012, and Amuda and Afrin on July 20. The cities, which were under the control of Assad regime until then, fell without any clashes, as the Syrian security forces withdrew without any resistance under a deal between the PYD and the Assad regime. But the Syrian regime's withdrawal did not bring satisfaction to the people living in these areas as the PYD's behavior was no different than the regime's. Some pro-FSA protesters were killed in al-Hasakah in December 2012 under heavy fire by some forces, which were either the regime's or the YPG. People accused the YPG of collaborating with the regime. Clashes broke out and the YPG killed more people. YPG forces also drove vehicles onto Kurdish protesters who were against PYD rule in Qamishli.

On June 27, 2013, the YPG killed more than 10 protesters in Amude and hundreds of Kurds who were opposed to PYD ruling were sent to prisons or had to leave their homes. It is now as if it never happened because PKK-sympathizer Western war analysts and journalists ignored what the PYD did then, but hundreds of thousands of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens fled their homes because of the PYD's brutality in 2013.

On January 21, 2014, the PYD self-declared autonomy in Jazeera, also known as al-Hasakah governorate, as part of the Rojava campaign. Kobani and Afrin followed Jazeera, on Jan. 27 and Jan. 29, respectively, alarming Ankara. But Ankara was pretty occupied dealing with the first crucial attack of the Gulenist Terror Group (FETÖ). In mid-December, Gulenists tried the overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, and Ankara had to solve this internal problem and could not focus on the YPG in Syria.

On June 15, 2015, the YPG took Tel Abyad, a critical development that meant not only a victory against Daesh with the U.S.-led coalition's support, but also a move to merge the Jazeera and Kobani cantons. Ankara started to look for alternatives to stop the PYD from forming a statelet in northern Syria. But then in July, the PKK ended the cease-fire in Turkey and started to carry out terrorist attacks with weapons transferred through tunnels from Syria. Turkey was hit by many terrorist attacks staged by both the PKK and Daesh in 2015 and 2016.

Just 40 days after the Gulenist coup attempt, the Turkish military intervened in Syria and prevented the YPG from merging Afrin with the PYD's other two cantons. And with Operation Olive Branch launched on Jan. 20, 2018, Afrin was liberated from the PYD. Those who tried to block Turkey's intervention might have caused a delay, but were not able to succeed. Ankara is determined to cleanse all YPG elements in northern Syria, but the next question is what the YPG's backers will do now.