US-Backed Kurdish coalition faces uncertainty in Syria

The Kurdish coalition that controls a third of Syria and helped the US fight ISIS is facing a new reality after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. NATO ally Turkey sees them as a threat and is demanding the dismantling of Kurdish militia (YPG). And some of the majority Arab civilians who live in Kurdish controlled areas want to be governed by the rebels that took Damascus instead.

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For nearly a decade, the United States has supported Kurdish fighters in northern Syria in their fight against ISIS. In the process, those Kurdish fighters have carved out a semiautonomous zone. But as Syria's new Arab leaders try to figure out how to unite their country after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, the future of the U.S.-backed Kurdish coalition is looking uncertain. Here's NPR's Fatma Tanis.

FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: In 2014, ISIS began taking large pieces of territory in northeast Syria as the country was embroiled in a civil war. So a Kurdish coalition of fighters was formed with the help of American troops in order to fight ISIS and take back the territory. Now, that coalition, known as the SDF, controls about a third of Syria. Yerevan Saeed is the director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace.

YEREVAN SAEED: The Kurdish control of these areas really came in a time when there was a vacuum of power, and the local population was very happy to have the SDF clear ISIS elements from all of these areas.

TANIS: The Kurds are an ethnic group in the Middle East without a sovereign state. And for a long time, some had hoped the territory would eventually turn into a permanent Kurdish autonomous region within Syria, similar to the Kurdistan regional government across the border in northern Iraq. But unlike in northern Iraq, a majority of the population living in northeast Syria aren't Kurdish. They're Arabs. And with a new Syria taking shape, the future of the Kurdish coalition hangs in the balance.

NICHOLAS HERAS: With Assad out of the scene, local Arab communities, you know, are uncomfortable with a sort of Kurdish militia group having ultimate authority in the areas. They have an alternative. They have another choice.

TANIS: That's Nicholas Heras with New Lines Institute. An even bigger challenge comes from Turkey, a NATO ally and Syria's neighbor to the north. Turkey says the main militia in the U.S.-backed coalition, called the YPG, is the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, an insurgent group that Ankara has been fighting for decades and calls terrorists. James Jeffrey is the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Iraq.

JAMES JEFFREY: Because of the huge role the PKK has played since I was first in Turkey in 1984, the Turks can never formally accept what the U.S. is doing with the SDF.

TANIS: The rebels that toppled Assad were backed by Turkey, giving it significant influence over the new Syria. And Turkey has made clear its priority is to dismantle the YPG, either with the new Syrian leaders in Damascus taking control and uniting the country or by a Turkish military offensive. The fate of the Kurdish coalition has raised concern in Washington, with some U.S. senators threatening sanctions if Turkey were to take military action. Denise Natali is the director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies and served during President Donald Trump's first term. She says the United States' arrangement in Syria with the Kurdish coalition is no longer viable.

DENISE NATALI: We are in a different situation. ISIS has been defeated territorially. We have a new administration that has clearly identified what their priorities are, and Syria is not a priority.

TANIS: She says there are bigger strategic priorities, like ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

NATALI: And these types of priorities are going to need strategic partners such as Turkey. And so it will involve us, I would say, starting to have a serious discussion about a negotiated withdrawal from Syria of our troops.

TANIS: That negotiated withdrawal, she says, is necessary to avoid a situation like what happened when the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan.

Fatma Tanis, NPR News, Istanbul.

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