Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 47

SYRIAN CRISIS

really one, and the Turkey-Syria
border is really a Turkey-Kurdish
T U R K E Y
Syria border (see figure 2).
Initially, the Kurds in Syria did
Kamishi
Erbil
Reyhanti
not take sides in the conflict; they
Alleppo
Hasaka
kept their distance from both the
IDLEB
Kirkuk
Latakia
Hama
Assad regime and the rebels, focusDeir ez-Zor
Homs
I R A Q
ing on the security of their own
Mediterranean
Sea
cities.10 They viewed the situation
SYRIA
LEBANON
in Syria as a historic opportunity to
Bagdad
Damascus
plant the seeds of an autonomous
Deraa
Areas of high Kurdish population
Kurdish region there. Instead of
ISRAEL
getting involved in the fighting,
JORDAN
they focused on Kurdish national
unification, establishing an army,
Figure 2
and securing their own towns. As
Kurds along the Turkey-Syria border
the fighting spread in the rest of the
country, a string of Kurdish-majority
The issue is really a regional one, encompassing towns in the north seized local authority from the
all of the countries in which Kurds live: Iran, Iraq, central government and took control of most state
Syria, and Turkey. Within each country, the Kurds institutions in the northern part of Syria, including
live in areas they consider part of a greater “Kurd- police stations.11
istan.” They see