Although the Syrian crisis continues, Kurdish groups have not become the decisive minority to help overthrow the Assad regime. Most demand Kurdish rights in the Syrian state; however, their nationalist goals have become part of regional proxy wars, sectarian tensions, and competing cross-border nationalism. The Syrian Kurdish opposition now involves relations with Ankara and other Kurdish groups as much as Damascus. While the Partiye Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK) has entered the conflict alongside Assad and against Turkey, Iraqi Kurds have intervened on behalf of Ankara and their own nationalist interests. These cross-cutting links will not only stifle a unified Syrian Kurdish movement, but they will likely create new opportunities for group conflict and border instability.
The Syrian Kurdish opposition is ineffective because it is targeting multiple fronts — the Assad regime, the Syrian opposition, Turkey, and fellow Kurds — that reinforce its disunity. Anti-regime sentiment is rooted in the discriminatory policies of Syrian Arab Baathism that excluded Kurds on an ethnic basis while assimilating them as Syrians, tribal chiefs and public officials. A shared sense of Kurdish ethno-nationalism certainly emerged; however; it fragmented between different socio-economic groups. This is why many Kurds have created the Kurdish National Council (KNC) and will not support the Sunni-Arab based Free Syrian Army, while others who have assimilated into the Syrian state have refrained from opposition politics altogether.
