LibGuides: The Syrian Conflict: Kurdish Forces

Kurdish Forces

Democratic Union Party (PYD)
- The Democratic Union Party (PYD) is the most prominent Kurdish organization fighting in Syria.
- The Rojava Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) administers the terrorist controlled by the Kurds in northern Syria and is led by the PYD.
- The People's Protection Units (YPG) is the armed wing of the PYD.
- They were first formed in the early 2000s as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK); the PKK is a Kurdish separatist organization in Turkey that the Turkish government considers terrorists. Because of this, Turkey considers the PYD a terrorist organization as it views them as the Syrian branch of the PKK (the Kurdish separatist organization in Turkey).
- The United States has given significant support for the PYD and this has been a source of tension with the US's Turkish allies.
- The expressed goal of the PYD is territorial autonomy in northern Syria for the Kurds.
- They are the largest part of the aforementioned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
- The Economist (Nov. 2016) estimated the strength of the YPG at 20,000 fighters.
- Resources on the PYD
  - Washington Institute's "Ascent of the PYD and the SDF" (Aug. 2016)
  - Washington Institute's "The U.S.-PYD-Turkey Puzzle" (Oct. 2015)
  - International Crisis Group's "Flight of Icarus? The PYD’s Precarious Rise in Syria" (May 2014)
  - The Carnegie Middle East Center's Profile of the PYD (Mar. 2012)
General Resources on the Kurds of Syria
- Chatham House's "Governing Rojava: Layers of Legitimacy in Syria" (Dec. 2016)
- Chatham House's "Kurdish Self-governance in Syria: Survival and Ambition" (Sept. 2016)
- The Atlantic Council's "Isolation of the Kurds in Syria" (Mar. 2016)
- Washington Institute's "The Syrian Kurds: Whose Ally?" (Mar. 2016)
- The Council on Foreign Relation's Interactive "The Time of the Kurds" (July 2015)
- The Richardson Institute at Lancaster University's "Borders, People and the Kurdish Political Situation in Syria" (Dec. 2013 - PDF)
- International Crisis Group's "Syria’s Kurds: A Struggle Within a Struggle" (Jan. 2013)
- Al Jazeera Centre for Studies's "Iraqi Kurdistan & the Syrian-Kurd Pursuit of Autonomy" (Sept. 2012)
- The Henry Jackson Society's "The Decisive Minority: The Role of Syria's Kurds in the Anti-Assad Revolution" (Mar. 2012 - PDF)
- The United States Institute of Peace's "The Kurds in Syria Fueling Separatist Movements in the Region?" (Apr. 2009 - PDF)
For information on the historical ethnic composition of Syria, and where Kurds live in Syria, see the ethnic composition maps provided below:
- Columbia's Gulf 2000 project - 2010 Ethnic Map of Syria (Summary)
- Columbia's Gulf 2000 project - 2010 Ethnic Map of Syria (Detailed)