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Syrian Kurdistan
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Syrian Kurdistan[a] or Rojava (Kurdish: Rojavayê Kurdistanê, lit. 'Kurdistan where the sun sets') is a region in northern Syria where Kurds form the majority. It is surrounding three noncontiguous enclaves along the Turkish and Iraqi borders: Afrin in the northwest, Kobani in the north, and Jazira in the northeast.[1] The term started to become more widely known as Kurdish nationalist groups and parties started to use it to describe the political entity later known as "Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria".[2]
Syrian Kurdistan is one of the four Lesser Kurdistans that comprise Greater Kurdistan, alongside Iranian Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, and Iraqi Kurdistan.[3] A significant part of the Kurdish community of Afrin was displaced during the Turkish-backed Operation Olive Branch in 2018.[4]
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- ^ Kajjo 2020, pp. 279, 284; Tejel 2020, pp. 251–252, 259; Lange 2018, pp. 275–276, 285; O'Leary 2018; Phillips 2017, p. 67; Allsopp 2016, p. 29; Gunter 2014, p. 8.
- ^ ICG Middle East Report N°176 (2017). The PKK's Fateful Choice in Northern Syria. International Crisis Group. p. 1.
This allowed the PKK to send its fighters from its Qandil stronghold in northern Iraq into northern Syria, thus improving its strategic position while suffering heavy losses fighting the Turkish army inside Turkey. By opening a second front, it was able to apply new military and political pressure on Ankara through its Syrian affiliates, the Democratic Union Party (Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat, PYD) and its military wing, the People's Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG), while pursuing an old ambition to connect the region's three non-contiguous majority-Kurdish districts of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin. In 2013, as the PKK and Turkey agreed a ceasefire and began political talks, the YPG-PYD set up a "democratic self-administration" there, calling it Rojava ("Western Kurdistan").
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Kajjo 2020, p. 273; Tejel 2020, p. 261; O'Leary 2018; Bengio 2017, p. 79; Bengio 2014, p. 2: "Hence the terms: rojhalat (east, Iran), bashur (south, Iraq), bakur (north, Turkey), and rojava (west, Syria)."
- ^ Chulov, Martin; Shaheen, Kareem (2018-06-07). "'Nothing is ours anymore': Kurds forced out of Afrin after Turkish assault". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-12-16.
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