Kurdish politics in post-2011 Syria: From fragmentation to hegemony. Issue 1 (1st January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tezcür, Güneş Murat; Yıldız, Helin
• Is Part Of: Mediterranean politics. Volume 26:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 130
• Page End: 138
• Publication Date: 2021-01-01
• Subjects: Syria -- Kurdish politics -- civil war -- ethnic politics -- Turkey; Mediterranean Region -- Politics and government -- 1945- -- Periodicals; 320.91822
• DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2019.1671677
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1362-9395

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The PYD has emerged as the predominant Kurdish political party in Syria soon after the outbreak of the civil war. Why and how did the PYD, established only in 2003, eclipse other Kurdish groups? This article addresses this historical puzzle and argues that conventional arguments that explain the rise of the PYD primarily as a function of its coercive practices with the complicity of the Assad regime are incomplete. Deriving insights from studies focusing on transnational dynamics of civil wars, this article argues that PYD's transborder linkages that provided the organization with crucial advantages over its co-ethnic rival organizations were central to its success. The empirical research involves several original empirical data sources including (a) biographical information of more than a thousand Syrians who joined the PKK since the late 1970s, and (b) biographical information of 785 individuals from Turkey who fought with the PYD since 2013.