Why will the US continue to support the Kurds in Syria?

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Russia’s direct intervention in the Syrian conflict last year rapidly altered the political landscape with new unforeseen military alliances emerging from the country’s broken political scenery.  

The United States, which rigorously maintained a wait-and-see politics in Syria and avoided direct actions even after the regime’s proven use of chemical substances in 2013, swiftly transformed its course in the country and found a trustworthy ally in the Kurdish resistance movement after the Kobani siege in 2014. This, undoubtedly, took place amidst Washington’s hopeless search for an indigenous force that could replace the much fragmented and resource-intensive Syrian Opposition, which in the end proved to be an incompetent partner with no real roots in the local population.

“The US needs an ally in the Middle East’s complicated and very difficult makeup,” Semih Idiz, a columnist at the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily, told Rudaw. “Washington will not easily let go of this alliance,” Idiz said referring to the Kurdish-US partnership in Syria. “No one really knows what will happen in the end, which is why everyone tries to do things as smoothly as possible. And Kurds are part of this balance of things,” he added. 

Washington’s approach seems to be clear, at least when it comes to the Kurdish enclave in Syria, Rojava, and its ruling party, the Democratic Unity Party (PYD) which is more or less an offshoot of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The tie between the two groups has not been something one could easily dismiss. After all, the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan was based in Lebanon’s Syrian-controlled Beqa’ Vally from early 1980s until 1998 when he left the country after Ankara’s mounting pressure. In fact, Turkey threatened to invade Syria if Ocalan was not evicted from the country and mobilized the army along the Syrian border. 

Having said that, the PKK has had plenty of time to recruit from the disfranchised Kurdish youths in Syria and turn them into its paramilitary wing long before the Syrian uprising in 2011. This is why the Kurds in Syria needed no time to reorganize themselves. And this is why initially Damascus trusted in them because of the regime’s historical ties with the PKK, which indeed had numerous and often conflicting dimensions. 

Washington is certainly aware of that, but it still has chosen to keep the PKK in its terror list while insisting that the PYD and its military arm the People’s Protection Units (YPG) are not associated with terror in spite of what the dumbfounded Turkish President Rejeb Tayyib Erdogan might say or think. 

“Following the nuclear deal with Iran, the US currently seeks to establish a kind of balance between the Shiites and the Sunnis in the region,” said Arzu Yilmaz a political scientist associated with the American University in Dohuk. “Apart from the Kurds, there are no other forces that are willing to cooperate with the US, which is why I think the alliance will continue,” she said.

It has not bothered the US that the PYD is basically running the enclave singlehandedly and has effectively excluded opposition groups within the Kurdish controlled Syria. In fact, the US has practically favored an organized Kurdish force, be it somewhat heavy-handed, to the disorganized Sunni force in the country, which produced little on the ground. 

As far as the US policy is concerned the Kurds, whether PYD or any other Kurdish groups, are the only force that would fight the ISIS or any other jihadist group, with or without the outside support. And that is what makes Kurds an interesting group for the pursuit of long-term American policies in the heavily unpredicted Mideast. The test was the Kobani siege, which united the Kurdish forces across the borders in spite of their internal disputes as both peshmarga and guerrilla forces fought the same enemy in the beleaguered town.

By all accounts, the US seems to continue to support and rely on Kurdish forces across the Syrian-Iraqi borders. It is the only secular Muslim group that has resisted both Shiite and Sunni oppression in their long merciless past. And perhaps that has already turned the Kurds into the kingmakers of the balance of power between the state-sponsored Shiites and Sunnis in the region- something the US is eying enthusiastically.