The Kurdish Awakening in Syria: Could It Lead to Regional War?
Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah
- After largely sitting on the sidelines of the Syrian revolution, political groups from Syria's Kurdish minority have moved decisively to claim control of Kurdish-populated areas.
- For the first time in modern Syrian Kurdish history, Kurds have created an exclusively Kurdish-controlled enclave. Kurdish spokesmen have indicated that they are planning to form a provisional Kurdish government due to the absence of any central authority.
- The Kurds have faced resistance to their new gains from the jihadistgroups Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
- For the first time since the start of the Syrian civil war, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, threatened to intervene on behalf of Syrian Kurds. Immediately after Barzani's statement, Iranian Kurds also announced that they were ready for battle.
- A "Greater Kurdistan" is no longer a remote possibility. This reality poses challenges for all of the states with large Kurdish populations: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.
Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.
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