Kurds eye new corridor to Mediterranean
The dream of a Kurdish corridor from Jazeera to Afrin appears to be attainable, but everything depends on the complicated relationships the Kurds are working to maintain in the area's complex ethnic and ideological makeup.
When the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) expelled the Islamic State from Tell Abyad, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, other Justice and Development Party (AKP) leaders and the pro-government media reacted hysterically. Among their frenzied scenarios: “Kurdish state in the making in northern Syria with US assistance,” “Kurdish ethnic cleansing of Arabs and Turkmens,” “Corridor opening to move Northern Iraq oil to Mediterranean.” One about the Democratic Union Party went further: “PYD more dangerous than [IS].”
We are so engrossed with demonizing the defensive operations of the Kurdish movement in Rojava that we don’t even have time to discuss what the PYD and the YPG are actually doing. Never mind the crazed scenarios of setting up a Kurdish state or opening a corridor to the Mediterranean, there are two important questions to study:
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After taking control of Tell Abyad and linking the Kobani and Jazeera cantons, will the YPG now cross to the western bank of the Euphrates River to expel IS from Jarablus?
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If the Kurds eliminate IS from Jarablus, will they move westward to open a corridor from Azez to Afrin canton?
