The conflict in Syria is something that has been going on for the past eight years. The conflict has expanded to every part of Syria. What initially started as a civil war is now a full blown international war with the Big 4 such as USA, UK, FRANCE, RUSSIA. Well apart from the regional powerhouses such as Iran, Jordan, Turkey, The Hezbollah are all part of this war.
Now over the course of the 8 years, the middle eastern theatre has seen its fair share of highs and lows. From the Islamic state gaining control over a vast section of Syria to the recent death of its leader Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi, by the US special forces. Weapons of mass destruction, here, the chemical weapons, were used in the Gouta in 2013, recently the Americans said that they would pull their troops out of the country and the incumbent president of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad sits firmly on the throne of power in his capital, Damascus.
But in the midst of all this bloodshed in the country, a young democracy is blooming in the Northern and Eastern parts of Syria, called Rojava. This is situated close to the borders of Turkey and Iraq. Now the Rojava is considered to be a part of Kurdistan. The region is a mixture of culture and traditions, Arab Muslims, Syrian Catholics and the minorities such as the local tribesmen of the region. Now the 1963 Arab spring brought the Arab Muslims from Turkey and Iraq.
In the mid 2015, the Islamic state took it upon itself to start an ethnic war against the Kurds of this region. Rojava is mostly protected by the Y.P.G also called as the People’s Protection Units. Now the region was neglected by the successive Syrian regimes and it had even denied the Kurds citizenship in 1996. The Democratic Union Party (PYD) makes the rules and protect this nurturing democracy and the Y.P.G is an integral part of this. Now initially Rojava consisted of 3 small states called as Afrin, Kobani and Jazira
The party PYD set up its constitution and it is completely opposite of the authoritarian regime that is present in Syria right now. The articles 27 & 28 of the Rojavan constitution gives woman right to join politics or any other fields they wish to, and even grant equality to men and women before the eyes of the law.
As the war continued along with support from the from United States, the Y.P.G, waged war against the I.S.I.S and it captured many cities such as Hasaka, Manjib, Al-shaddadi,. Now with as they captured this territory, they integrated them into Rojava, even various ethnic groups such as the Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrians joined the Rojavans and together, they named this new territory as Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. As a result of this the Kurdish forces merged with local militias and called themselves as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
Now the Syrian government does not recognise the territory of DFNS, and the Turkish government claims that the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), is affiliated to the PKK a militant group in Turkey, which is also a designated terrorist group according to the E.U&U.N.
Now as the I.S.I.S, fell this opened an opening in the region as the Turkish government sent its troops back to Afrin as a part of its military offensive, named operation “Olive Branch”.
The twisted face of geo-politics showed its face once again, the united states stopped its arms supply to the Y.P.G, as it had no common enemy in sight. Also turkey since being a N.A.T.O member, the united states did not show much interest in dealing with the matter.
Now with no support it would be very difficult for the SDF to stand up to the military might of the Turkish government.
Now as most of the eyeballs and cameras are on the global pandemic COVID-19, no information is reaching us from these parts. One hopes that when the dust settles on the global pandemic and when our attention returns back to the middle east, that this young democracy is not, dismantled apart and a million dead bodies lay in waiting for us.
Chanakya Mahadev
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