Turkish tank en route to Syrian borders in Kilis, Turkey, January 22, 2018, to take part in "Operation Olive Branch" in the Afrin region. Picture by Depo Photos/ABACA/ABACA/PA images. All rights reserved. The situation for the Kurds today is reminiscent of the times of the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Sever and Lausanne treaties at the beginning of the last century. As in all exceptional moments in the history of the region, there is much talk about the nature of the Kurds' belonging to the countries where they live, and whether they have separatist projects. In the Syrian case, for example, the question that strongly arises is whether the Kurds in Syria are Syrians or Kurds. This question is also common in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran.
The Kurdish issue and how to deal with it is what brings together these four countries, despite the political, ethnic, and ideological differences among them. In the case of Iraqi Kurdistan, the four countries agreed to reject the referendum held late last year, preventing the establishment of a Kurdish state by regaining the control of Iraqi forces together with the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and all other so-called disputed areas between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) is one of the most important Kurdish entities in Syria. It includes military, security, social and political organizations, among which are the Democratic Union Party (PYD), considered the most effective in the Syrian Kurdish political scene, and the "People's Protection Units" (YPG), the major pillar of Syria's democratic forces (SDF). The Democratic Society Movement is an intellectual extension of the (Turkish) Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Syria and its leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on the Turkish island of Imrali since 1999. In Syria, it attempts to decentralize the future government of Syria, starting with the self-administration declaration in early 2014 and followed by the Community Federation, in partnership with many local components, in the provinces of Al-Jazeera, Al-Furat, and Afrin. It seeks to do so to gradually reduce the authority of the Syrian government in areas of control.
