Syrian Kurds hoping to reach the Mediterranean after ISIS

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish officials in Syria have announced their intention to link the Kurdish region of Rojava to the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to establish a trade route that could improve their economy once ISIS is defeated in the region.

 

Hediya Yousef, in charge of the federalism project for the self-declared democratic federation of north Syria told the Observer, “Arriving at the Mediterranean Sea is in our project for northern Syria.”

Yousef believes it is their legal right to do so. “If we arrive at the Mediterranean it will solve many of the problems of the population in northern Syria, everyone will benefit.

 

The Mediterranean Sea lies about 100 kilometers from the westernmost region of Kurdish controlled Afrin, one of three cantons ruled by the democrtaic federation.

 

If the Syrian Kurdish population were to carry out this plan, they would first need approval from the Syrian regime’s president Bashar al-Assad in addition to an agreement with Russia, Assad’s strongest ally, since the other Kurdish-held eastern cantons are not linked to Afrin and therefore need to cross territories currently held by Syrian regime.

The Kurds do not control the territory between the Afrin canton stretching to the Mediterranean, an area of mostly Arabs held by the pro-Syrian regime forces. 

 

If the SDF is successful in liberating Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, the Kurdish-controlled areas would increase to approximately one-third of the country as opposed as the current 16 percent that is governed by the federation of Rojava, the Observer detailed. 

 

Russia’s influence in the region was recently highlighted on Friday during the Astana talks when the Russian-backed de-esclations zones in four parts of the country also received the approval of Iran, main backer of the Syrian regime, and Turkey which backes the Syrian rebels opposing the regime. 

 

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which consists of about 50,000 fighters dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in addition to Arab fighters, and the U.S. backed coalition are preparing an offensive against the ISIS-held Raqqa aftre they recaptured many parts surrounding it since they launched the Wrath of Euphrates last year. 

 

Recent movement of hundreds of U.S. military forces through Rojava near the Turkish border showed solidarity with the Kurdish population but also created tensions between Washington and Ankara.

 

On Wednesday a senior aide to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, suggested that “American troops could be targeted alongside their Kurdish allies” – a warning that has done nothing to alter Washington’s view that the Kurds are an indispensable ally in the imminent battle to liberate the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.

 

Opening the region to an international trading route would significantly empower northern Syria and circumvent the existing blockade on Rojava caused by the closed border with Turkey and tensions with the Kurdistan Region, the Observer writes.