SDF forces in Rojava

By Arian Mufid:

Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had a chance to use their influence in the North of Syria, in Kurdistan. In that respect they sent out their senior members to strengthen an organisation akin to PKK. In 2011, the PYD – a PKK-aligned party founded in 2003 – established the YPG as an armed self-defence force, which was followed by the creation of the YPJ as a women’s self-defence force. These organisations all shared an ideology rooted in the revolutionary principles of the PKK. Also parallel to these organisations is the SDF founded on 10th October 2015. The SDF is allied with and supported by the United States and the international coalition. Their stated mission is to fight for the creation of a secular, democratic, and federalized Syria. The SDF is composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian and smaller Armenian Turkmen and Chechen forces. THE PKK’s efforts aimed to establishing a state similar to the South of Kurdistan and connect both de facto states together. This was the PKKs Grand Project and they ultimately finalised it with success. Rojava was established as a self-governing region, adopting a system similar to Switzerland’s canton model, where separate cantons hold decentralized power to govern the area. This successful movement by the PKK made Turkey worried and caused anxiety among the right wing politicians – Erdogan being one of them and the MHP party of Bahceli another. As the civil war intensified, Rojava continued to make significant progress in consolidating its self-governance and territorial control. Rojava managed to get international support from Sweden, France and the United States due to their bravery in their fight against ISIS in 2014. It is for this reason that US forces provided air cover for the fighters in Kobani; together with food, supplies and ammunition.