Two Syrian Kurds were shot dead by a former member of the Free Syrian
Army (FSA) last weekend, in what the executioner said was a response to
an incident last month in which the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) killed around 50 FSA fighters and transported them back to Kurdish territory in an open-top trailer.
Tensions have flared
as images of both incidents — which could not be independently verified
— circulated on social media over the weekend and into Monday,
until the FSA-aligned rebel group Jaysh al-Thuwar disavowed the alleged murder of the Kurdish civilians as a “crime” by a disgruntled former FSA fighter.
“The offender was fired by the rebels a month ago,” the group
said in a statement published on its website, calling the incident “a
false military operation.” The incident is symbolic, however, of the mutual distrust that
continues to cast a shadow over the Kurdish-Arab relationship in
northern Syria.
“I think this is an individual act by the perpetrator, however
some groups want to take credit for it and present as a revenge act for
killing their members last month,” Mutlu Civiroglu, a Syria & Kurdish Affairs Analyst, told Business Insider last week.
The incident comes as the US has tried to bring Arab and Kurdish
forces together to fight the Islamic State, threatening to add new
complications to that all-important battle.
“Amnesty International has in seven months issued two major
reports highlighting allegations of war crimes by rebel and Kurdish
forces in northern Syria,” Hassan Hassan, a Syrian journalist and resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, wrote earlier this week in The National.
He continued: “The two reports are related to
a secondary conflict brewing between Arabs and Kurds from Hasakah to
Qamashli to Aleppo, which could easily spin out of control and add to
the many conflicts that already plague the country.”
Reuters
Kurdish
and Arab fighters have a long history of mutual distrust that peaked
between 2012 and 2013, when the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG)
battled FSA-aligned rebel groups for control over the Syrian city of Ras
al-Ayn.
Those tensions have re-emerged over the past eight months. The
YPG-controlled neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsood has come under siege by
both Syrian government forces and the rebels, with reports emerging that
the rebels have committed war crimes against the neighborhood’s Kurds.
In March, an intense battle between Kurds and rebels in Aleppo
punctured the relative calm that had been forged by the cessation of
hostilities agreement brokered by the US and Russia one month earlier.
The rivalry has put the US in a difficult position. The YPG has
proven to be the most effective force fighting ISIS on the ground in
northern Syria, but the territorial expansion their victories have
afforded them are vehemently opposed by Turkey, an important US ally and
member of NATO.
Ankara views Kurdish demands for autonomy as a threat to Turkey’s
sovereignty. It backs many of the rebel groups that have clashed with
the YPG.
Complicating the situation further is the High Negotiations Committee’s (HNC) insistence
that it should be the only opposition group represented at peace talks
in Geneva, where multiple attempts to forge a political solution to the
more than five-year war have failed. The HNC is a Saudi-backed coalition of Syrian opposition groups created in Riyadh in December 2015.
Turkey has also objected, citing the Kurdish insurgency it is battling in its southeast.
REUTERS/Rodi SaidFighters
from the Democratic Forces of Syria carry their weapons in al-Shadadi
town, in Hasaka province, Syria February 26, 2016.
The
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was supposed to alleviate
Turkey’s anxiety by incorporating some Arab and Turkmen groups to offset
Kurdish influence. But the SDF was established by members of Euphrates
Volcano — a coalition that included certain FSA factions but was
dominated by the Kurdish YPG — and has since clashed with the FSA’s 13th
division near the strategically important Azaz corridor.
“The US may not want to jeopardise its relationship with a
force that has helped it win key tactical battles against ISIL in Syria,
but the unconditional support for the YPG is irresponsible because it
creates unnecessary conflicts and undermines the long-term war against
extremists,” said Hassan, who co-wrote “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.”
Not everyone would agree that the US’ support for the YPG is
“unconditional.” And the case could be made that the US’ decision to
gamble its relationship with Turkey — which has been accused repeatedly of turning a blind eye to ISIS’ illicit activities — in favor of a closer relationship with the fiercely anti-ISIS YPG was a strategic move.
Still, Washington’s insistence that supporting the group is key to defeating ISIS was complicated in February, when YPG forces further west appeared to be actively coordinating with Russia to recapture territory taken by anti-Assad rebels near Azaz.
Alaa Al-Faqir/ReutersPeople
carry a banner and wave Free Syrian Army flags while attending an
anti-government protest in the rebel-held town of Dael, in Deraa
Governorate, Syria March 18, 2016.
As Hassan
noted, because one of the YPG’s primary goals is to expand its
territory in northern Syria by linking its Afrin canton with Jarabulus —
and because it is more “anti-ISIS” than “anti-Assad” — the group is
viewed suspiciously by Turkey and Sunni opposition groups in Syria.
“I’ve argued all along that empowering the YPG without
doing the same for the Sunni Arab opposition would create an acute
power imbalance in northern Syria,” Middle East expert Charles Lister wrote on Twitter last week, noting that the “imbalance may spark a conflict that could outlast” that between the regime and the opposition.
“This position has nothing to do with being pro or
anti anyone,” Lister said. “It’s merely the result of assessing broader
dynamics in Syria’s north.”
