Syrian Kurds Declare Autonomous Region

Asia News (h/t Gates of Vienna) reports:

Syria's tragic situation is getting even more complicated. The country's Kurds have announced the "formation of a transitional civil administration for the area of Western Kurdistan-Syria."


Yesterday's announcement by the Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) was made in Qamishli, north-eastern Syria, and comes after Kurdish forces successfully seized border posts with Iraq, hitherto occupied by jihadist groups.


In July, Kurdish leaders had already announced plans to create a provisional government in the region after Syrian government forces decided to pull out a year ago to prevent Kurds from joining the rebels.


Syrian Kurds represent 10-15 per cent of the country's population, and are concentrated in the country's north-eastern Syria, next to Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan.


Language, culture and a desire for a state of their own connects people in all three areas (four if we consider Iran's Kurdish region).

Assad was forced to give the Kurds autonomy out of political and military necessity--to keep them from joining the Syrian rebels. The temptation for the Syrian Kurds will be to join with the Iraqi Kurds. Assuming that Assad does not win and immediately turn on the Kurds, an economic union, of sorts, is inevitable between the regions in Syria in Iraq. Where it will become tricky is if either side seeks a political union. Turkey would see such a union as a threat to Turkey's control over its Kurdish regions, and I doubt Iraq would be open to allowing some of its richest oil fields to pass to another state.

I expect the Kurdish issue to begin assuming a greater importance moving forward because some sort of independent Kurdish state seems almost inevitable, yet carries a potential for civil war in multiple countries.