MESOPOTAMIA NEWS TODAYS OPINION SYRIA : James Mats, the U.S. defense secretary about future of SDF (PYD/PKK)

The Future of Kurds in Syria is Unclear

By Abdulrahman Razgayi  – nrttv.com –  2018-03-17

Kurds in the past seven years have taken control of large areas of northern Syria and on 17/3/2016 they announced a Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS). This Federation includes all the Kurdish areas which were under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and headed by YPG. The international coalition against ISIS, led by the United States of America, was under control, and the reason for U.S. assistance to the YPG was that U.S. had an influential Kurdish power in the war against ISIS. Whenever we talk about the future of the Kurds in Syria, we are talking about the agreement between YPG and U.S., because throughout the war against ISIS, the agreement was continuing. In this matter, we are drawing on this relationship and its impact on the future of the Kurds in Syria.

The history of the relationship between the Kurdish forces and the U.S. is due to 2013 Obama began implementing an envelope project for the CIA to train the modern Syrians to overthrow the Syrian regime Bashar Assad. However, the achievement of those goals some of which as a practical way to stop giving weapons, and the programming objectives have remained unclear and the point of change in programming was to increase the Syrian-Democratic forces to the framework of this programming in September 2016, although the United States gave weapons in a non-continuous manner.

The United States needs an active and Secular partner in the territory of Syria and it is correct to say that both are in need. Some are pushing the United States through the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are applying their policies in a war against an oppressor.

The main question is that the relationship between the Kurdish forces and U.S. remains only in a war against ISIS or a long strategy? Salih Muslimm, former co-leader of PYD in an interview with AL-Monitor, said, “We have no promise by United State of America to the future of a federal province of northern Syria,” and U.S. official sources have not talked about the future of the Kurds. They always say that SDF is their partner in a war against ISIS.

James Mats, the U.S. defense secretary on May 17, 2017, said that their relationship with SDF is only political and diplomatic, and that only 5% of Syria is under their control and it is possible to start a new phase for the Kurds because America does not need the Kurds and the ISIS at its end. Now they have expelled one of the losers. This war is a daunting task and at the same time the future of the Kurds is unclear because Syria and Turkey are dangerous for the future of the Kurds, especially Turkey, because it controlled 1,600 kilometers between Afrin and Kobane. It started by a big attack on Afrin about 53 days ago. So far America and the international community are silent about this. The Washington Post reported that an agreement between the United States and Turkey will be reached to oust Kurdish forces from Manbaj. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Jonassan Cohen confirmed that they have no plan to stay in Syria and that their forces are present for a war against ISIS, and now there is a risk for the Kurds in the West because Turkey is 6 km away in the center of Afrin, and Erdogan threatened to penetrate northern Syria fully and with Sinjar in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, for this the future of West Kurdistan is unclear. www.mesop.de