Democratic Federation of Northern Syria–Kurdistan Region relations

Iraqi Kurdistan–DFNS relations

Iraqi Kurdistan
Democratic Federation of Northern Syria
     Iraqi Kurdistan      Rojava

The Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS) shares much culturally with Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region of Iraq, but has many political differences. There has been military cooperation with Iraqi Kurdistan and the United States in the conflict against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), although neither gives official support for the DFNS or its People's Protection Units (YPG). The Kurdistan Regional Government, which the Kurdistan Democratic Party runs, is an ally of Turkey and has co-operated to enforce a unilateral economic blockade against the DFNS which has damaged and limited the DFNS's economy. The "Sultanistic system" of Iraqi Kurdistan[1] stands in stark contrast to the democratic confederalist system of the DFNS.

The DFNS's dominant political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is a member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) organisation. Although KCK member organisations in the neighbouring states with autochthonous Kurdish minorities are either outlawed (as in Iran and Turkey) or politically marginal with respect to other Kurdish parties (as in Iraq), the PYD-governed DFNS has acquired the role of a model for the KCK political agenda and blueprint in general.

There is much sympathy for the DFNS, in particular among Kurds in Turkey. During the Siege of Kobanî, a large number of ethnic Kurdish citizens of Turkey crossed the border and volunteered in the defence of the town. Upon their return to Turkish Kurdistan, some of these took up arms in the renewed Kurdish–Turkish conflict, where skills acquired by them during combat in Kobanî brought a new quality of urban warfare to the conflict in Turkey.[2][3]

The relationship of the DFNS with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq is complicated. One context is that the governing party there, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, views itself and its affiliated Kurdish parties in other countries as a more conservative and nationalist alternative and competitor to the KCK's libertarian socialist ideology.[4]

Like the KCK umbrella in general, and even more so, the PYD is critical of any form of nationalism,[5] including Kurdish nationalism, putting them at odds with the Kurdish nationalist visions of the KDP-sponsored Kurdish National Council in Rojava.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Kurdistan's Politicized Society Confronts a Sultanistic System". Carnegie Middle East Center. 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
  2. ↑ "6 reasons why Turkey's war against the PKK won't last". Al-Monitor. 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
  3. ↑ "Kurdish Militants and Turkey's New Urban Insurgency". War On The Rocks. 2016-03-23. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
  4. ↑ "Kurdistan's Politicized Society Confronts a Sultanistic System". Carnegie Middle East Center. 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
  5. ↑ "Syrian Kurdish leader: We will respect outcome of independence referendum". ARA News. 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  6. ↑ "Kurdish National Council announces plan for setting up 'Syrian Kurdistan Region'". ARA News. 2016-08-04. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
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