Kurdish reaction to the current situation in Rojava*

Kurdish reaction to the current situation in Rojava*
Zaher Baher
22/01/2026
Rojava, Syria, and neighbouring countries are going through a very complicated situation. It is very difficult for us to fully understand what is happening at the moment. What we know so far is that there is a hidden agenda involving Israel and the United States. The players in the region, including Turkey, the Syrian government, and IS, are taking part in a bloody game, and the blood is flowing from the body of Rojava.
We all know what happened and each of us may have our own prediction about this bloody game. I will only address the points I have observed here.
First, the wave of racism:
A widespread wave of racism and nationalism has spread across protests, demonstrations, media, and social media among Kurdish people. This wave is mainly driven by Iraqi Kurds, especially those in the Kurdish diaspora, many of whom are sitting behind computers and promoting extreme nationalism.
This is clearly evident in the areas I mentioned above. Dozens of videos are being shared on Facebook and WhatsApp showing how people in Rojava and their fighters are treated after being captured by the Syrian government army. These videos come from people in Gaza and from other chauvinist Arab groups and IS elements within the Syrian army. There are also many other videos that support Rojava and praise its fighters among Arabs and Turks, but they are rarely seen and are not widely circulated.
What is happening is very dangerous. These racist tendencies are not present among Kurdish people in Rojava or in Kurdistan in Turkey, and if they do exist, they are very rare. Such so-called activities do nothing but fuel the fire of a Kurdish-Arab war.
Second, the call for the removal of Tom Barrack:
Many people believe that what has happened in Rojava and Syria is the result of the policies of the US envoy Tom Barrack himself. They think that replacing him with someone else would change the situation in the interest of the Kurds. It is true that Tom Barrack is of Lebanese Arab descent and may have some inclination toward Arabs on minor issues, but he represents the policy of the US administration in Syria. He only implements US policies and cannot go against them. The proof of this is the presence of senior US military commanders and senior CIA intelligence officials in the region. If Tom Barrack were to reverse US policy, they would not remain silent.
Another piece of evidence is the prisons of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which were holding large numbers of IS prisoners and their families. When these prisons were attacked by the Syrian government army while being guarded by the SDF, the SDF informed US forces and warned them about how dangerous the situation could become if IS prisoners were released. However, the US forces did nothing. This raises the question of why they allowed the Syrian army to attack and break the prisons, leading to the release of IS prisoners.
Third: Trump is a businessman, not a politician:
Many Kurdish intellectuals and social media users say that Trump is a businessman, not a politician, when discussing his attitude toward Rojava and the Kurdish people. These people have little knowledge of politics or economics. They do not understand that politics is a reflection of the economy and serves economic interests, as if former US presidents were not connected to major businessmen and giant corporations.
Political administration is nothing but the protector of the economy and economic hegemony. The power and dominance of any country depend on its economic strength. For this reason, government policies, education programs, and various plans and efforts are aimed at economic growth, and even the army serves this purpose. Trump is both a politician and a major businessman. His political decisions reflect economic realities and are designed to protect and benefit the super-rich and giant corporations.
Fourth, the impact of this incident on the so-called peace process in Turkey:
There is no doubt that what is happening will have a very negative impact on the Kurds in Turkey, the PKK, and Ocalan himself. The SDF was the backbone of Rojava and of the Kurds in Turkey. While the SDF and the autonomous administration in Rojava were important to Erdogan and his government, the PKK was neither important nor threatening to them as much as Rojava. The PKK is under the control of the Turkish state. The Turkish government could have fought it at any time, as they did, and in doing so, destroyed three parts of Kurdistan. Erdogan and his allies in the government knew that the PKK’s armed movement had done the greatest service to the Turkish state since 2015, when the fighting started again between Turkish state and PKK, while it had not provided even the slightest benefit to the Kurds or to any part of Kurdistan.
Erdogan and his government consider Rojava so important and dangerous for the Turkish state that, if it were not for the US alliance with the SDF and the support it received not only from Kurdish people but also from many countries around the world, the Turkish government would have destroyed it from the start. They never hesitated to attack, as they did in 2018 when they managed to invade Afrin, one of the Kurdish regions in Rojava.
In my opinion, if the situation worsens and the war in Rojava continues between the SDF and the Syrian army, ending in the defeat of the SDF, it will also end the so-called peace process. Ocalan will either be ignored or forced to do what the Turkish state wants. The SDF was a great force and a very important moral support for Ocalan, and it is still significant. Defeating the SDF would be a defeat for both Ocalan and the PKK.
Fifth: Blaming the US:
Most Kurds, along with some European and Arab leftist politicians and governments, blame the US for being unfaithful to the Kurds, even though the Kurds have made all the sacrifices to defeat IS and protect their citizens in Europe, the US, and other countries.
Those who hold these views do not ask what agreement existed between the SDF and the United States. Anyone aware of the situation knows that the United States never made any promises to the SDF or to the Kurds of Rojava from the beginning. On one occasion, Trump said, “The Kurds are brave and good fighters. They have helped us destroy IS. We have given them their rights, helped them, and paid them.” Tom Barrack also confirmed this a few days ago, but in a different way, saying, “We no longer need the SDF, and now we have a government that is our ally in the fight against IS.”
The US not only did that, but it also came and divided the Kurds and the Kurdish resistance in Rojava. The US only had a contract with the SDF and worked with them, while rejecting the other two parts of Rojava: the autonomous administration and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) itself. The SDF is the army that protects the autonomous administration, while the PYD is its planner and leader.
The United States has never hidden that it is an ally of the SDF, not of the PYD or the autonomous administration. This policy of the United States, which all three parts of Rojava accepted from the beginning, was aimed against them and was extremely dangerous. It is therefore one of the factors behind what is happening now.
Many of us know that relying on the United States and Western countries is not reliable. They are not only pursuing their own interests, but most of them have no history of liberating any nation or supporting any revolutionary movement. On the contrary, they also have a bloody history.
Unfortunately, we are now seeing the same scenario that occurred in Afghanistan being repeated in Syria. All the sacrifices made in Afghanistan and all the money spent to overthrow the Taliban ended up bringing them back to power, which Trump highlighted during his election campaign as a major weakness of Biden and his administration. The same thing is happening in Syria, but this situation is extremely dangerous. It could lead to genocide, potentially spark an Arab-Kurdish war, and the destructive flames of this conflict could spread to Iraq and a few other countries in the region.
This is the plan and agenda of the United States and some Western countries.
It is time to learn a big lesson, not just in Rojava. We must reject the dirty role of political parties, leadership, sacred leaders, and armed warfare except in self-defence. It is time to organize ourselves outside the control of political parties and dominant leaders and thinkers. It is time to awaken. Let us reject the attractive slogans of “long live… and death to…” and move beyond thinking driven by emotion and feeling. We must think with our minds and learn from history about the bloody role of rulers and authoritarians. That is the only way forward. At the same time, we must stand up against the oppression and genocide of the Kurdish nation in Syria, and against the dark forces that seek to control the urgent course of history under the guise of religion, vanity, chauvinism, and fascism.
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* Rojava is the northeastern part of Syria where the Kurds live.