Syria: Rojava is under fire

First published at Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

Early on Sunday morning, I received numerous messages with pictures and videos from the northern Syrian city of Qamishli. They showed dancing and singing people who had just toppled the larger-than-life statue of Hafiz al-Assad.

The Syrian dictatorship ended on 8 December, after over 50 years of brutal oppression by the Assad family. Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, which granted him asylum on “humanitarian grounds”. He is responsible for numerous crimes, such as the use of barrel bombs and chemical weapons, ethnic cleansing, systematic torture, and state murder.

Many in Syria celebrated after the dictator’s fall, including in the Kurdish north-east of the country. But the war there continues, as Islamists with Turkish support attack the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, also known as Rojava. Tens of thousands of people are fleeing and a humanitarian catastrophe looms.

The people of the Autonomous Administration have been organizing themselves — independently of the Syrian state — for over ten years. The Kurdish-dominated regions of the country declared their independence from the regime in 2012 during the civil war, proclaiming the first three cantons of Cizire, Kobane, and Afrin in 2014. Rojava became a global symbol for the fight against the “Islamic State” (IS) and the establishment of grassroots democratic structures. Until the fall of Assad, this self-governance expanded and eventually encompassed around one third of the country. It was home to an estimated 4 million people, including Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, and Christians. The entire region is administered by councils and committees in which the population can participate directly in local politics.

Turkish interests

Rojava is now facing an existential threat from attacks by the Islamist Syrian National Army (SNA), supported by Turkey. Ankara is using the state’s collapse to achieve goals it has been pursuing for years in northern Syria. The Turkish government views Rojava as little more than an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is banned in the country. In recent years, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has therefore repeatedly announced his intention to establish a 30-kilometre-wide security buffer along the southern border in Syria, which would mean the end of self-governance. Current developments indicate that he now wants to realize this plan.

Following Turkey’s repeated invasions of northern Syria in violation of international law — such as Afrin in 2018 and Tel Abyad and Sere Kaniye in 2019, of which it has occupied large parts ever since — SNA militias recently captured the city of Tall Rifaat north of Aleppo, and have been advancing on the city of Manbij west of the Euphrates since the beginning of the week. Both Arab-dominated areas had been under self-administration since liberation from IS. After several days of bloody fighting, the SNA captured Manbij on the morning of 10 December 2024.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the region’s multi-ethnic military alliance, had previously managed to fend off several attempted attacks, according to its own statements. SDF General Commander Mazlum Abdi finally declared that he had agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire on Wednesday morning. “The fighters of the Manbij Military Council will withdraw from the area as soon as possible”, said Abdi. The agreement was concluded in order to guarantee the safety of the civilian population: “Our goal is a ceasefire throughout Syria and the initiation of a political process for the future of the country.”

Nevertheless, the fighting continues further east and is currently centred on the Qara-Qozak bridge over the Euphrates. At the same time, Turkey is attacking the northern Syrian city of Kobane with air strikes. It is only 30 kilometres from the bridge to Kobane.

The city of Kobane became a symbol of the fight against IS in 2015 after Kurdish defence units — with the support of the US-led international anti-IS coalition — were able to push back the radical Islamists for the first time. Now the city is under threat of a renewed Islamist siege. “Syria must be prevented from relapsing into the bloodiest days of the civil war. Only if Turkey stops its escalation can we utilize the historic opportunity for a peaceful solution to the conflict”, explained Khaled Davrisch, representative of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria in Germany. “Just as the whole world feared for Kobane in 2015, the future of Syria could now once again be decided in Kobane”, Davrisch continued.

Flight and expulsion

So far, however, there are few signs of a political solution, although the self-administration and the SDF have repeatedly called for one since the fall of Assad. The humanitarian consequences of the SNA’s attacks, on the other hand, are devastating. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports serious human rights violations by the invading troops following the battles for Manbij. SNA militiamen are said to have executed wounded SDF fighters in a hospital. Looting against the Kurdish population in the multi-ethnic city is also said to have taken place.

In addition, many people had to flee from the areas occupied by the Islamists. According to the aid organizations medico international and the Kurdish Red Crescent, over 120,000 people have been displaced from the region around Aleppo and Tall Rifaat. Those who fled from the Kurdish canton of Afrin had been living in informal settlements and refugee camps since 2018. Now they must flee again, amidst reports of torture and killings.

In the meantime, the people have arrived in the self-administered area east of the Euphrates and the first reception centres have been set up in the cities of Tabqa and Raqqa. However, the conditions are disastrous and everything is lacking: medicine, food, tents. Several children have already died of hypothermia. Hygienic conditions are poor and diseases are spreading.

What can the international community do?

The repeated expulsions illustrate how ethnic and religious minorities are becoming the target of geopolitical interests in the Syrian conflict. The international community has so far largely ignored the escalation of violence in northern Syria. Turkey’s NATO membership and the EU’s “refugee deal” with Ankara in particular make it difficult to clearly condemn the Turkish attacks. Moreover, Western countries’ focus on the war in Ukraine means that the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria receives little attention.

Now is the time to send clear signals — supplying the displaced people in Rojava and other parts of Syria must be a priority. This includes the provision of food, tents, and medicines, as well as the creation of safe escape corridors.

The Autonomous Administration has proven that it can be a stabilizing factor in the region. Recognizing it as a political actor would not only strengthen its position, but also increase the pressure on Turkey to end the offensive. The Autonomous Administration’s call for a UN-brokered ceasefire should therefore also be supported, as only through comprehensive dialogue can the course be set for a sustainable, peaceful order in Syria. This would also mean the international community holding Turkey accountable for its repeated violations of international law and the war crimes committed by SNA militias with Ankara’s knowledge and approval.

Assad’s end means that Rojava’s future is at stake. The achievements of self-administration risk being destroyed in the midst of geopolitical power games and regional interests. Absent decisive action by the international community, the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria will continue to escalate. The struggle for Rojava is not only a struggle for territorial control of individual areas, but also for the future of freedom, equality, and self-determination in Syria and the Middle East as a whole.

Translated by Loren Balhorn. Christopher Wimmer is a sociologist and author from Berlin.