Lt. Cmdr. Joshua M. M. Portzer, U.S. Navy

The Syrian civil war has been one of the most destructive conflicts in recent international history. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives, and even more people have been displaced from Syria. Amidst the tumult of violence, the Islamic State (#IS# ) emerged as the most vicious strain of Islamic terrorists to date. The IS and numerous armed factions within Syria have taught the world a bloody lesson in the power of nonstate actors. Yet, ironically, a nonstate actor largely led the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in defeating the IS. Supported by the United States, the Kurdish Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (People’s Protection Units, or #YPG# ) led Raqqa’s recapture, and in demolishing the caliphate, the YPG reclaimed approximately a third of Syrian land known as the Rojava. The YPG fighters arguably have been the unsung heroes in the most recent international campaign against terror, as told by many media outlets such as CNN and National Review.1 Unfortunately, these same media outlets now tell of another latent maelstrom of destruction.2 The United States has stepped aside, enabling Turkey to invade the Kurdish Rojava region in northern Syria. While the White House vacillates between a full withdrawal and a limited one to quell a potentially resurgent IS, a secondary multination conflict is unfolding amid a wavering cease-fire and a joint Turkish-Russian agreement. Until the YPG satisfactorily distances itself from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey’s view, however, mediation efforts are almost certainly doomed to fail. Shaping the YPG’s messaging and dialogue with Turkey should be the Syrian Kurds’ main line of effort.
Who Are the People’s Protection Units?

The YPG is the armed wing of the Syrian-based Democratic Union Party (PYD). Ethnic Kurds comprise most of its membership. Although the YPG was founded in response to the 2004 riots that took place in the Syrian city of Qamishli, the YPG gained international recognition by fighting the IS during the Syrian civil war.3 In the process of fighting the IS between 2014 and 2016, the YPG and the Kurdish contingent writ large have come to dominate the Rojava—an area largely bordered by the Euphrates, extending through the northeastern portion of Syria (almost one-third of the country). The Rojava is a de facto autonomous region that has established a nascent liberal democracy.
Turkey’s Issue with the People’s Protection Units

The PYD’s founding philosophy hails from Abdullah Öcalan, a Kurdish socialist-turned-federalist who founded the PKK and who was imprisoned by Turkey.5 Turkey has designated the PKK a terrorist organization and so have the United States and the European Union. The PKK’s violent separatist campaign dates to the 1980s, and since 2015, Turkey has dealt with a PKK-launched insurgency. PKK attacks have killed over forty thousand people to date.6 The common philosophical underpinnings of the PKK and YPG as well as Turkish Kurds fighting alongside Syrian Kurds (albeit against the IS) make the YPG and the PKK interchangeable in the eyes of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In short, Erdoğan’s government believes the YPG and PKK are one and the same, and for Turkey, there is little difference between “Kurdish terrorists” and the IS. As Turkey’s former Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğl commented in 2015, “How can you say that [the YPG] organization is better because it’s fighting [the IS]? … They are the same. Terrorists are evil. They all must be eradicated. This is what we want.”[1]

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