Having attained their autonomy as a result of the destructive war which threatens to break-up the whole country for good, the Kurds Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) have endured their fair share of hardship and suffering. They now fight to retain this gain and hope that they can realize the historic opportunity for autonomy and emancipation.
Before this war they were repressed by the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-Assad and his father both culturally and politically. Assad's war finally gave them breathing space. But soon their autonomous territory and very existence came under threat by rampaging Islamists.
Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State (ISIS) both want a Syria where Rojava is either subjugated or wiped from the face of the earth. The former has ethnically cleansed Kurds from areas it has captured and the latter deployed many of its men and resources in an earnest attempt to destroy Rojava.
They besieged the border city of Kobani for 134-days, overran 350 Kurdish villages and displaced 400,000 Kurds and brutally killed many. They have also attacked Kurds everywhere else in Rojava at every opportunity.
Many of Syria's Kurds have been unable to stay. Civilians such as the family of Alan Kurdi have left due to the constant threat of another grisly massacre and the tough economic and living conditions caused by this war. Most of Kobani still remains uninhabitable months after the destructive siege and eventual defeat of the ISIS militants by the Kurdish force YPG.
Additionally the terrain in Rojava is very flat, not mountainous like Iraqi Kurdistan, meaning they don't have easily defendable sanctuaries to operate from. Furthermore Rojava sits along Syria's frontier with Turkey, which will not tolerate an autonomous Kurdish region next door, especially one under the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is believed to be a branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The neighbouring Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil is doing its part to help Rojava cope with these hardships and threats by training thousands of Syrian Kurdish fighters against ISIS. The Peshmerga assisted their Kurdish brothers defend Kobani. The open border between KRG and Rojava is a lifeline and tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds have found welcoming shelter in Kurdistan Region.
Iraqi Kurdistan's own fight for autonomy and self-governance came with many heinous atrocities leveled against them by Baghdad. Their land was dotted by the smoldering ruins of 4,000 destroyed villages while tens of thousands were massacred in notorious in genocidal campaigns. One could hardly blame anyone for thinking that the struggle of Iraq's Kurds was hopeless. Having suffered such systemic death and destruction and still facing a ruthless enemy in the form of Saddam Hussein the struggle appeared doomed.
Remember in those days the Iraqi tyrant, unlike ISIS today, was not confronted by the world powers. From the vantage point of today however, they have successfully attained tangible autonomy and by many accounts are now better off than many Kurds in Iran, Syria and Turkey and closer to a state of their own than ever before.
Looking from the piles of rubble in Kobani to the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq one retains the hope that the Syrian Kurdish struggle will not be in vain. Despite all they have had to endure, and doubtlessly will have to endure in the coming weeks and months, one hopes they will prevail in their fight against a truly odious enemy and have their autonomy not only universally respected, but recognized too.
Paul Iddon is a freelance journalist and political writer who writes on Middle East affairs, politics, developments and history.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
