The events that occurred in Syria following the 2011 revolution gave rise to two entities that turned out to be more harmful to the revolution and the Syrian people than the Assad regime itself, and which provided it with invaluable service: namely, Daesh and the YPG. These two terrorist groups stabbed the revolution in the back, committed crimes against civilians, killed and displaced populations, all while cloaking themselves in hollow and bombastic slogans.
The Daesh phenomenon has practically disappeared since the American ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, recently declared that American forces had accomplished 99% of their mission to eradicate the terrorist organization in Syria.
What remains is what is called the “SDF/YPG,” the Syrian branch of the PKK; an entity created with the support of Washington, Tel Aviv and Tehran (Israel and Iran supporting the same organization? What irony!). This entity could not have survived without the presence of a few hundred American soldiers, whose role seems limited to preventing its inevitable collapse, despite Barrack’s claims that it is a “U.S. ally in the fight against Daesh.”
An international coalition was formed to combat Daesh, even though it remains unclear who was truly behind this dark organization and who financed it. That same coalition supported the YPG. I mention this to highlight again the hypocrisy of Western double standards.
On June 2, a prisoner exchange operation took place between the Syrian government and the YPG: detainees held in the prisons of the Syrian wing of the PKK for one, two or even six years were released. Why were they imprisoned? What were they accused of? The ready-made accusation of belonging to Daesh is always available, but is it legal? How can Washington and Paris sponsor such an entity? And this is assuming we grant the West the benefit of the doubt regarding its sense of justice and commitment to human rights...
Daesh used religion as a cover for killing; the YPG exploited the myth of “Rojava” to do the same, just as former regime leader Bashar Assad used secularism and “resistance” to carry out his own massacres.
The SDF, dominated by the YPG, is essentially a brutal force led by outlaw bands, intellectually and socially bankrupt, cut off from all horizons and now useless after the expiration of their contract. Yet they continue to brandish their outdated slogans, which only the West still buys, clearly in exchange for interests now obvious to all. It is a fictitious, illusory and temporary entity, made possible by the abdication of Kurdish parties and elites, which paved the way for the SDF to present itself as the "guardian" of Syrian Kurds and to speak on their behalf.
Just like the PKK, which, by claiming to monopolize the struggle for Kurdish rights, has committed a historical offense against all Kurds, especially the poor, those who merely wait for the end of the battle to see which side will win.
It is time for Kurdish forces, parties and elites, whose naivety has been exploited to extract them from the course of history through a colonial project that turned them into instruments for destroying their own cultural environment and national geography, to take a stand and make their voices heard.
The Kurds must participate constructively and with clarity in severing all forms of ties with external actors, to refocus on those with whom they share life, country and interests.
The Kurdish forces that dominate today are reluctant to confront their own reality: scattered and defeated fragments, wandering in search of a protector who can provide them with weapons and power. These forces are marked by feelings of anger, confusion, imbalance and a desperate wait for a miracle that would allow them to establish a “farm,” even at the cost of eradicating others, who are, in fact, the actual inhabitants of the coveted lands: Deir el-Zour, Raqqa and Hassakeh, in particular.
The SDF carries no national project or inclusive vision, because they do not believe in the Syrian nation, nor do they give it any weight.
This chronic deadlock reinforces the need to build a state of citizenship for all, in order to break definitively with the legacy of tyranny and to enable everyone to become free citizens through a state governed by law and institutions. Furthermore, psychological and moral rehabilitation is essential to avoid repeating such disastrous experiences in the future.
Damascus welcomed the YPG-led delegation last week, apparently “without preconditions.” Yet these same SDF forces continue to dig tunnels, carry out forced conscription campaigns, abduct young girls, raid civilians’ homes and arrest young people without any charges.
Recently, information circulated on social media that the YPG had “advised” all Kurdish social media platforms to “respectfully criticize the personality of Ahmad al-Sharaa and his government, and not to be drawn into insults or personal attacks against him, his family, or the Damascus government, in order to preserve civil peace against attempts to stir division on social media.” If this is true, it is a commendable gesture, but it remains largely insufficient.
The SDF should take an example from Abdullah Öcalan, whose portrait they display everywhere and whom they venerate. They should demonstrate a minimum of his courage and acknowledge their defeat. Everything they are doing today, negotiations, discussions and demands, is merely procrastination and stalling for time because they know full well they are in free fall.
If they truly care about Syria’s future, they must accept their failure, which they themselves have sealed with their own hands, and recognize the bankruptcy of their potential contribution to the new phase of reconstruction. They must also stop begging for Western support in the name of their minority status. As one analyst said, whoever speaks in the name of the Kurds, the Alawites or the Druze is not Syrian. A Syrian speaks in the name of Syria. There is no place for sectarians or separatists in tomorrow’s Syria.
As for the rights of the Kurds, they are the same as those of all Syrians. There is no distinction to be made between a Syrian Kurd and a Syrian Arab. In any case, it is not the terrorists of Qandil who will teach us the meaning of citizenship.
The PKK-linked SDF represents a project that embodies all the concepts and ideas that Syrians abhor, against which they rose up, and for the eradication of which they gave their lives. Syrians will not tolerate its presence on their soil: the one-party regime, the cult of the charismatic leader and minority rule. This project is also, to some extent, hostile to the identity of the Syrian people, their Arabness, and their belief in Islam and ultimately prioritizes a factional voice over the Syrian national voice.
