New Report: What does the Syrian-Kurdish Opposition want? / Politics between Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Damascus & Qandil

KURDWATCH, September 30, 2013—When the protests in Syria began in in the spring of 2011, many observers assumed that the Kurds would play a key role in the overthrow of the regime. Although the Kurdish opposition had fragmented into more than a dozen political parties, it was the best organized part of the Syrian opposition as a whole. In fact, the Kurdish opposition has played only a minor part in the uprisings thus far.

The following report analyzes the reasons for this. In addition, it follows up on our report »Who is the Syrian-Kurdish opposition? The development of Kurdish parties, 1956—2011« and sketches the developments since October 2011. As new oppositional actors have entered the political arena with the youth groups and the Kurdish units within the Free Syrian Army (FSA), this report takes a broader definition of the term »opposition«.

Download pdf Full Text http://www.kurdwatch.org/pdf/KurdWatch_A009_en_Parteien2.pdf