The Kurdish Question and the Syrian Revolution

Socialism 2018

July 05, 2018

The Kurds are a people of 28-35 million without a nation. Divided between Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, Kurds have been used by authoritarian regimes and imperialist actors to serve their interests before being sacrificed when these interests changed. The US has relied on Kurdish forces in Rojava in Northern Syria to combat ISIS, but looked the other way when Turkey’s Erdogan, who is threatened by the prospect of a successful Kurdish entity on its own border encouraging Turkey’s own Kurdish population, invaded the Kurdish stronghold Afrin in Syria last January. Collaboration by some Kurdish forces with imperialist forces can’t be used to justify the refusal of the right of self-determination of the Kurdish people. In Syria, as elsewhere, the destiny of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination is closely tied to the overall struggle against the Assad dictatorship, and both today are in under severe attack.

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