The rapid advance of Syrian government forces in Syria and the retreat of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has led to Kurdish families fleeing the fighting.
Many Kurds in the region now fear the instability that may come in Syria. This is a reminder of many other recent attacks on Kurds in the region.
Among many Kurds, there is a saying that they have “no friends but the mountains.” This is a reference to the mountains that form the border of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria and are integral to the Kurdish homeland.
Among the Kurds, these four regions in the four countries are called Rojava (west), Bakur (north), Rojhilat (east), and Basur (south). Rojava is the name of the Kurdish region in Syria.
Over the past decade, Kurds have faced multiple rounds of fighting and displacement.
In 2014, ISIS attacked the Kurds in Syria and Iraq.
In 2015, a ceasefire between the Kurdish PKK and Turkey broke down, and there was fighting in many Kurdish cities in Turkey.
In 2017, the Iraqi federal government, backed by Iraqi militias aligned with Iran, attacked the largely Kurdish city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, seizing it from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. This forced thousands of Kurds to flee.
In 2018, Turkey invaded the Kurdish region of Afrin in Syria. Turkey mobilized Syrian Arab proxies to attack Kurds in Afrin during the fighting, forcing about 160,000 people to flee. Kurdish women were kidnapped, and men were killed.
In 2019, Turkey again invaded a Kurdish area of Syria near Serekaniyeh. Once again, some 100,000 Kurds had to flee. Kurdish activist Hevrin Khalaf was brutally murdered by Arab militias backed by Turkey.
Now, Kurds are again fleeing in Syria.
“More than 500 Kurdish families displaced from areas west of the Euphrates River have arrived in northeastern Syria (Rojava) as fighting escalates between the Damascus-affiliated forces and the Kurdish-led forces, according to the Kurdish Red Crescent,” Kurdistan Region-based news channel Rudaw Media Network reported.
“So far, 540 families from west of the Euphrates have reached Rojava,” Kurdish Red Crescent co-chair Hadiya Abdullah told Rudaw on Sunday.
Relief teams deployed mobile medical centers to receive the displaced people
“Abdullah said that 400 families have arrived in Qamishli city, while 100 families headed toward al-Malikiyah (Derik) and 40 others went to Amuda in Hasaka province, adding that ‘a number of other families are also on their way,’” the report said. “She noted that relief teams are prepared to respond and confirmed that ‘we have deployed mobile medical centers to receive the displaced people.’”
This displacement is happening after the Syrian government clashed with Kurdish forces in two neighborhoods in Aleppo in early December. After a week of fighting, the Kurdish forces were forced to leave the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods.
Then the Syrian government attacked the SDF in an area near Dayr Hafir, close to the Euphrates River. This led to the SDF retreating this past Saturday and Sunday, and the Syrian government seized a swath of territory along the Euphrates River. Raqqa, the former capital of ISIS that the SDF had liberated in 2017, was captured by Damascus-backed forces.
Many of the areas that the SDF retreated from are areas populated by Arab tribes. As such, they are not inhabited by Kurds. The Syrian government, however, is not advancing toward Hasakah, Kobane, and other areas that have Kurdish majorities.
The concern among many Kurds is that the SDF could collapse. In addition, many feel that the US has not stood behind the SDF sufficiently.
The US backed the creation of the SDF in 2015. It was created from Kurdish fighters who were members of a group called the YPG.
The SDF suffered thousands of casualties fighting alongside the US-led coalition against ISIS. The SDF was admired by the Americans who served alongside it, including special forces and other fighters.
Nevertheless, the US partnership was a narrow military partnership. US diplomats warned over the years that the partnership with the SDF was temporary, transactional, and tactical.
The SDF was not a country, and the US couldn’t recognize it as a state. The SDF also didn’t want to become a country. As such, it was always in limbo.
Some suggested that the SDF should try to form an autonomous Kurdish region similar to the KRG in Iraq. This never happened. Instead, the Assad regime fell in December 2024, and a new government appeared in Damascus.
That government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, has made major strides internationally.
US President Donald Trump has met Sharaa several times.
While some members of Congress express concern about attacks on the SDF, the general consensus is that the SDF is mostly on its own today. The SDF and its backers still hope the US will mediate for them.
There have also been some calls for Israel to help the SDF. Meanwhile, many Kurds wait and hope that they will not suffer more attacks in Syria.