It would seem that ethnic and sectarian strife has been exacerbated to the point of no return in war-torn Syria. Likely, only by force can the “winner” of the conflict ensure rule over the whole of Syria. It would appear the idea of living together has been shattered and long forgotten.
Still, when I visited northern Syria in February, I observed the exact opposite of what I had expected. I was told that Arabs in Raqqa and Tabqa were bitter, fearing Kurds ruling from Qamishli and Kobane since their Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated their areas from ISIS. I heard that it was only a matter of time before tribal leaders would shift their allegiance to Bashar al-Assad who would be keener to serve their interest in the Euphrates River Valley. I heard that Christian minorities were under-represented and resented their Muslim neighbors to the point that they would soon all emigrate from Syria.
In Qamishli, I spent a lot of time with members of the Youth Movement, a local organization that organizes youth across of Northern Syria and promotes cultural and educational activities for them. Some of them were also part of the civilian convoy that brought us from Qamishli. Although most of them were Kurds, some of them shared mix origins, as was our half Armenian and half Yezidi contact.
A civilian convoy travels from east of the Euphrates to Afrin canton.
All the youth that I spent time with spoke at least two languages, if not more. All of them were YPG/J enthusiasts, but didn’t express any Kurdish nationalist feelings. Instead, they viewed the Northern Syrian Federation as a model where all communities can find a place to be represented while consulting their fellow Syrian neighbors. I was impressed by the level of political awareness and engagement of this young crowd. Most of them were 15-18 years old, but had a clear idea of what they were talking about, especially the women.
From February 21-25, I followed around 1,300 civilians headed to express solidarity to the besieged population in Afrin. In the convoy, the atmosphere was electric. It didn’t look like we were headed into a warzone. Instead, everyone was cheering, music was always playing in the bus — even as we crossed the regime held territories between the cantons of Manbij and Afrin. In this particular moment, soldiers of the regime came into our bus and sat with us until we arrived at the gates of Afrin canton.
There was no tension between them and the civilians in the bus. On the contrary, they were all keen to discuss the situation and to hear about how the life was on both sides of the fence. We offered them biscuits and dates as well as drinks. They declined politely. Later on, the youth were impatient to play their favorite songs so the bus again became a daytime ambulant nightclub. And surprisingly enough, the soldier in our bus started shaking his shoulders in rhythm with the music, even making the V sign with his fingers on songs about SDF and Ocalan. It was surreal.
On the way, civilians from the regime territory gathered on the side of the roads and cheered us. They held their fingers in V high up in the sky, cheering us for our motivation to go to Afrin and support the population there against what was perceived as a Turkish invasion into Syria. It was a great moment of Syrian communion.
Syrian children hold a sign reading 'Stop bombing Afrin' amid the Turkey's Olive Branch operation.
As we neared Afrin city, we sustained heavy mortar and air attacks by the Turkish army and their proxy fighters, killing one civilian. We took cover in the village of Basute by night and in the morning, the scattered members of our bus tried to find each other in the silent village. In another house where we were taking cover during another wave of shelling, we met a sheikh from Jizra, a village in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor governorate.
He had come to Afrin to express his solidarity to the local population in light of the Turkish attack. There, a vivacious debate ensued between him and other Kurdish people in the room, trying to identify the cause of the sectarian strife and the reasons behind the current lack of political solution to the crisis. Our coordinator, the young Yezidi Armenian woman part of the Youth Movement, stood up to him and expressed her mind, articulating complex elements of the geopolitical situation and historical factors to explain the crisis.
Eventually, they all agreed that the main reason for exacerbating all these tensions was foreign intervention, be it Russian Iranian, Turkish, Saudi, American or Turkish. They also emphasized Turkey’s highly harmful role.
Turkey has allied with Islamist militias from Idlib province and others from the area of al-Bab and Azaz. Most of these fighters would like to enforce an authoritarian religious government over Syria where Sunnis would be favored.
An Arab and Kurdish woman stand united in Afrin.
The population in Afrin and northern Syria is fighting for the exact opposite: a secular and inclusive federation with a bottom-up direct democracy system. We were able to witness the reality of this system in Afrin and in the rest of northern Syria. Unfortunately, it was ousted from Afrin, only still implemented around Tal Rifaat today. But for how long?
In Afrin, by the end of February, demonstrations were almost daily. We met Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Yezidis, Alawites and many others, all showing support to the resistance movement in the district. A young man came towards me He must have spotted my quite western appearance. “Listen” he said, shoving a headphone in my ear. It’s a Druze song from Suweida. I listen to music from all around Syria. Everyone does the same here. We are all Syrians, we are proud to be.
“This intervention is an invasion, we are being ethnically cleansed by the Turkish troops and their Islamist allies” another angry man said. “Why is the international community keeping silent? How come we are allowing the Turks to replace our Kurdish population with Uighurs from China and Arabs from other parts of Syria without anyone raising a finger?”
I was speechless.
Men lock hands, ready to perform traditional dance in northern Syria.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
