Syrian Kurds’ empowerment in Rojava intimidates regional powers

Syrian Kurdish officials stated on Sunday that the Syrian army attacks on the mainly Kurdish northeastern city of Hasaka came as a reaction to the victories made by the Kurdish-led forces against the Islamic State (IS) in Manbij.

HASAKA, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan24) – Syrian Kurdish officials stated on Sunday that the Syrian army attacks on the Kurdish northeastern city of Hasaka came as a reaction to the victories made by the Kurdish-led forces against the Islamic State (IS) in Manbij.

Speaking to Kurdistan24, Nawaf Khalil, head of Germany-based Kurdish Center for Studies (KCS) and a former spokesperson for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Europe, explained the change in regional powers that led to bombing the Kurds by the Syrian army.

“Syrian army bombed the Kurdish positions in Syria after the Turkish-Russian Turkish-Israeli and Turkish-Iranian reconciliation,” he said.

Khalil further pointed out that the relations of the regional powers are changing in conjunction with their interests.

“The Turkish government which supported the Syrian opposition after the eruption of the Syrian revolution showed recently some kind of potential reconciliation,” he said.

“Recently, when the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his country will not allow the division of Syria into ethnic regions by taking a more active role in Syria in coming months, he was pointing to the YPG gains,” Khalil further explained.

Additionally, Khalil commented that attacking the Kurdish positions in Syria by the Syrian army came after a green light by the regional powers, i.e., Russia and Iran.

 

KURDS VERSUS IS IN NORTHERN SYRIA

After the Kurdish-led Syrian democratic Forces (SDF) seized full control of the northern Syrian city of Manbij near the Turkish border last week, the SDF next potential target was the IS-held town of Jarabulus on the Turkish border or Al-Bab in northern Syria.

In a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand in northern Syria, the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are preparing to launch an attack to seize Jarabulus.

The SDF-affiliated Jarabulus Brigades said in a statement that several military groups entered Jarabulus last week.

"The factions are gathering in an area near the border (inside Turkey)," a Syrian rebel official, who is familiar with the plans but declined to be identified, told Reuters on Sunday.

Another rebel source told Reuters they were gathering at a Turkish military camp near the town of Karkamis just opposite Jarablus.

Additionally, a statement by the YPG said that the Turkish army created confusion in the Syrian Kurdish-held areas on the Turkish border.

“The Turkish army attacked the Syrian villages of Ziyarata and Asfa east of Kobani with heavy weapons,” the YPG statement said.

“The Syrian government is against the Kurdish victories against IS, because this makes us [Kurds] stronger,” the YPG spokesperson Redur Khalil said in a statement last week.

Jarablus is a significant IS-held town on the western bank of the Euphrates River on Syria's border with Turkey.

 

Editing by Ava Homa
(Kurdistan24 correspondents Heybar Othman and Ekrem Salih contributed to this report from Hasaka)