GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Since the Syrian revolution began in 2011, the Kurds have not engaged in direct military confrontations with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has not shelled their areas as it has other Syrian cities, even though the Kurds have always opposed successive Syrian regimes.

Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are accused of embracing the ideology of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), managed to earn the international community’s trust after the 2014 battle for Kobani. This feat led to an international consensus, including the United States and NATO, to support them in the face of the Islamic State. Yet the Syrian opposition accuses the Kurds of being allies of Russia, which is shelling Syrian areas, and of cooperating with the regime through Russia. Buthaina Shaaban, political and media adviser to the Syrian regime, said in a Feb. 20 statement that the Kurds are cooperating with the regime through a Russian agreement.

In October, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published an article by Fabrice Balanche warning that the US-supported, Kurdish nationalist Democratic Union Party (PYD) "will not hesitate to cooperate with Damascus and Moscow in the north if Turkey and the United States continue prohibiting the unification of Kurdish enclaves” including Afrin, Kobani and Jazira.

Talk of Kurdish ties with the Kremlin raised concerns, particularly in the United States, whose government armed the Kurds. Also, the possible Kurdish-Russian ties increased Turkey’s fears that the Kurds’ influence would grow near its border with Syria. Those fears increased in October, when Moscow expressed its readiness to cooperate with any forces fighting against IS in Syria and commander Sipan Hemo demanded that Russia supply the YPG with weapons and coordinate with the group against IS.