YPJ Fighters: Kurdish Female-Only Brigade
Following a conversation between Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the United States announced the withdrawal of entire about 2,000 troops from Syria – revoking its support for Kurds in Syria and handing over their future to Turkey.
Turkish armed forces are preparing to march into Syria to drive Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militias out of Rojawa (Western Kurdistan) in northern Syria. As of now, SDF controls one-third of Syria, known as Kurdish region in Syria.
After US abrupt betrayal, the Kurdistan administration in northern Syria is looking at Russia to press Bashar al-Assad to protect their territory from fast-approaching Turkish offensive. Last week, a Kurdish delegation also visited Moscow to seek Russian support.
WHO ARE KURDS?
Kurds are the largest stateless nation in the world and fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East. Kurdish ethnic domains rim on the territories of other three major ethnic groups in the region – the Arabs to the south; the Persian to the east; and the Turks to the west.
In the absence of an independent state, Kurdistan is defined as the areas in which Kurds constitute an ethnic majority. There are about 35-40 million Kurds, who originate from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Armenia, and Turkey as well as located all around the world.
Akin to Arabs – Kurds are an ethnic group, not a distinct religious sect in Islam. The majority of the Kurds are Sunni Muslim, with a small minority of Shia Muslim and some non-Muslim such as Christians, Jewish, and Yezidi communities.
All three ethnic and religious groups – Sunni Arabs, Sunni Kurds, and Shia Arabs – share core religious beliefs in Allah and Prophet Mohammad ﷺ. More than 90% in each group said that they fast in the holy month of Ramadan.
KURDS IN SYRIA
SDF is an alliance of largely Kurdish and other Arab, Turkmen, Assyrian, and Armenian militias fighting against Islamic State, Al-Nusra Front, and other Jihadi groups in the Syrian Civil War. Its objective is to establish and protect the federal region, Rojawa.
Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD) or Democratic Union Party is the crux of the SDF. It is a branch of Turkey’s Kurdistan worker’s Party (PKK) and operates two armed wings in Syria – People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ).
YPG surfaced on the world arena in 2012 after it forced Syrian Arab Army out of the Kurdish populated regions. After the siege of Kobanî by ISIS in September 2014, it demonstrated sensational and determined resistance against the DAESH.
With the help of US-led coalition airstrikes and Free Syrian Army (FSA), the YPG eventually defeated the Islamic State and recaptured Kobanî in January 2015. The battle of Kobanî is considered a turning point in the war against Islamic State.
PYD’s YPJ is a female-only brigade, which accounts for about 40% of total Kurdish fighters. Grown through the Kurdish military campaign, the YPG played a crucial role to take back the control of Kobanî from Islamic State. It has around 10,000 volunteer female fighters.
KURDS IN TURKEY
The founding of PYD dates back to the banning of Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK) or Kurdistan Worker’s Party in Turkey, after which many PKK-sympathetic Kurds emigrated to Rojawa and formed a Kurdish organization (PYD) in Syria.
Imprisoned in Turkey, Abdullah Öcalan is the founding member of PKK, which was instituted in 1978. Revered as ideological leader of Kurds across the region (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria) – Öcalan called for independent state in Turkey.
Widely referred as Apo – Uncle – he has been launching attacks in Turkey from Syria in late 1980s and 1990s. He was forced to flee Syria after Turkey responded with intensive counter-insurgency backlashes and was arrested from Kenya – and was latter extradited to Turkey for prosecution.
KCK (Koma Civakên Kurdistan) or Kurdistan Communities Union is the political arm of PKK in Turkey and has offshoots and affiliates in Syria (PYD/YPG/YPJ); Iran (PJAK or Kurdistan Free Life Party); and Iraq (Tawgari Azadi).
About half of the Kurds in the Middle East live in Turkey – where they are 20% of the total Turkish Population. As the constitution of Modern Turkey rebuffs the existences of any ethnic sub-groups in the country, the Kurds perceive thorough suppression.
Therefore, Ankara has consistently shut down any Kurdish effort to politically organize in the country – designating any act of Kurdish nationalism a punishable offense to imprisonment. It outlawed Kurdish in Turkey language until 1991.
Turkey declares PKK a terrorist organization – accusing its ideology based on revolutionary Marxist-Leninism and separatist ethno-nationalist. It also charges PKK for the killings of more than 40,000 people since its military insurgency began in 1984.
On the other hand, Kurds believe that they have been politically marginalized and persecuted particularly by Turkey and Iraq. Kurds in Syria are seeking a greater autonomy or completely independent Kurdish state.
KURDS IN IRAQ
After the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds succeeded to achieve establish an autonomous state – Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) – in 1992, with autonomy in three provinces. In 2005, KRG gained increased privileges including maintaining their own army on the borders of Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
The Kurdish region in Iraq now houses 5.2 million population and four governorates – Erbil, Slemani, Duhok, and Halabja – comprising 40,000 square kilometers. KRG is larger than the Netherlands and four-times of the Lebanese area.
However, the Kurds of Iraq they are yet to declare independence – shouldering that such an action would enrage Turkey that would not accept an independent Kurdish state in the neighborhood and might scratch the strong Kurdish nationalist movement in Turkey as well.
Additionally, Iraqi-Kurdistan is also landlocked and has to rely on Iranian, Syrian, and Turkish for land and air communication – one of the most important factors preventing them to declare independence, especially if the Arab Iraq adopts a more hostile line toward the new state.