Islamist Forces in Syria Eye Hasakah, Seat of Kurdish Self-Rule

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Clashes between Syrian Kurds and Islamist forces are creeping into Hasakah province and threatening to upend the Syrian Kurdish experiment in self-rule.

Home to oilfields, supply routes and the largest concentration of ethnic Syrian Kurds, Hasakah now also houses the infant government of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the strongest Kurdish political party and the driving force behind the declaration of self-rule earlier this year.

"Hasakah is the heartland of what would be Rojava or Western Kurdistan," says Nicholas A. Heras, a Syria researcher at the Jamestown foundation, referring to the Kurdish name for Syria’s northeastern regions.

"It’s linked territorially to the regions that have been historically Kurdish in eastern Turkey and in Iraq; it also has the largest city for Kurds in Syria, Qamishli, which serves as a spiritual capital for Syria's Kurds."

Currently, the crux of the battle between al-Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and Syria’s Kurdish forces, the People's Protection Units (YPG), is being waged just to the west of Hasakah, along the eastern edge of Aleppo province, also known by its Kurdish name Kobane.

ISIS has surrounded the town of Kobane (Ain al-Arab) and issued warnings to Kurdish residents on the outskirts of Tal Abyad, telling them to flee before another assault that was set to begin over the weekend.

Within Hasakah province, ISIS has taken back the town of Markadeh from rival Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusrah and has launched a series of attacks on the Kurdish-controlled town of Jazaa.

Following the attacks on Jazaa, the PYD released a statement calling the violence "a brutal campaign," and linking it to the offensive on Ain al-Arab. ISIS is “using the Kobane front as a hub for launching attacks on various Kurdish areas in Syria," the statement read.
  

So far, despite days of fierce clashes that have left dozens dead on both sides, no significant territory has changed hands.

While Qamishli may be the de facto capital for Syria's Kurds, the town of Serekaniye (Ras al-Ayn) could hold the most strategic value. Heras, the Jamestown foundation researcher, says Ras al-Ayn is important for practical and ideological reasons.

Practically, he says, the town sits at an important border crossing with Turkey, giving whoever controls it the ability to manage the flow of goods and fighters in and out of Hasakah.

Ideologically, he says, "from the perspective of the YPG, if they lose control of Ras al-Ayn, they're one step closer to losing their ability to determine their autonomy in the future." The town, he says, acts as a bridge of sorts between the eastern and western parts of Syria's Kurdish regions. Capture it and Syria's Kurds will be left divided.

Hasakah is also a rich agricultural region and home to many of the country's oilfields.

Mutlu Civiroglu, a Kurdish analyst based in Washington DC and a contributor to Rudaw, says this natural wealth means that "controlling Hasakah will provide any group an important advantage over the others."

Before the Syrian crisis erupted in 2011, Hasakah produced half of the country’s daily oil output. While Syrian oil reserves are relatively few and require a complicated refining process, in a war-ravaged economy the fields still provide an important potential source of income to whoever controls them.

All of this means the current battles being fought on the edges of Hasakah province are high stakes for Syria's Kurds.

"In many ways (the PYD) is trying to downplay what’s happening," says Thomas McGee, a Turkey-based researcher following Syrian Kurdish issues. "I think this is a bigger deal than the PYD wants to publicly announce." 

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