The revolution in Syria has developed into a war containing numerous, competing factions, one of which is the Kurds in Northern Syria. The Kurds are ethnically different from the rest of the Syrian population, and are actually part of a region called Kurdistan, which includes parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
In the midst of the commotion, an autonomous Kurdish state in the Syrian portion of Kurdistan has emerged. It closely resembles what the Kurds in neighboring Iraq did in March of 1970, when Kurdish rebels in Iraq came to an agreement that allowed the Kurds to make their own government. This government includes their own capital and parliament, as well as a president and prime minister.
The Kurdish people tend to favor a democratic form of government and believe in equal rights for women, which would include allowing them to vote and serve in the army. They have used these beliefs in the creation of their governments in Syria and Iraq; both countries have organized, democratically elected federal governments as well as trained armies.
Throughout the countries that make up Kurdistan, political parties devoted to promoting Kurdish rights have sprung up. According to Al-Monitor, a publication that focuses on the Middle East, “all of these Kurdish parties share the idea of a unified Kurdish identity.”
The Kurdish people must establish their own autonomy as a unified state, which, in theory, could have a population of about 30 million people and become a western-leaning, democratic country in the heart of the Middle East. A Kurdish unification would also break down the European-established borders from the Great War that currently divide the Kurdish population, and it would protect Kurds from the racial discrimination of the countries where they live now.
However, this unification may only happen when the global community is willing to help the Kurdish people establish independence from their current governments in order to form a united Kurdistan.