Kurds are carving out their own state called Rojava.
This is Rojava, a region in northern Syria that runs along the
border of Turkey.
It's home to over a million Kurds, one of
the largest ethnic groups in the Middle East.
Until a few years ago this was a
rural and forgotten corner of Syria, where the Kurds were denied legal status
by the Syrian government.
But today, Rojava's a self governed region with a
powerful militia that led the fight against ISIS.
And it's where the Middle East's
youngest democracy is taking shape. Surrounded by Assad's totalitarian
regime, the militant Islamic State, and a hostile neighbor, Turkey, this is an
unlikely place for a democratic revolution. But it was actually the
Syrian war that made Rojava a possibility in the first place.
In 2011, protests against dictator Bashar Al-Assad erupted in Syria,
The uprising
turned into open rebellions, after he sent his army to crack down on the opposition.
With battles on multiple fronts and forces stretched thin, he had to make a choice.
By July 2012 Assad pulled most of his army out of the traditional Kurdish
territories in northern Syria to defend these major cities in the West.
The move
created a void, but not for long.
An existing Kurdish political party called
the Democratic Union Party stepped up to defend and govern the region they called Rojava.
They organized it into these three small
self-governed states.
They set up a democratic system of local governments
and claimed they would to protect the rights of all citizens, including the
multiple ethnic groups within the region.
They also promoted gender equality
across all public institutions, including their military.
An all-woman military group
called the YPJ took shape and fought alongside the Kurdish militia,
called the YPG.
But just as Rojava started taking shape,
it came under attack.
The jihadist militia known as ISIS...
Terrorist group ISIS gaining ground...
In Syria and Iraq right now...
In 2014, the Islamic State
swept through Syria.
In Rojava they drove all the way to Kobanî on the
Kurdish border and laid siege to the city.
Trapped inside were thousands of
civilians and Kurdish militia fighters.
As ISIS threatened to take the city,
small pockets of Kurdish fighters held their ground until reinforcements arrived.
The US provided air support for the Kurds and together they retook Kobanî,
marking a major moment for Rojava.
The Kurdish fighters proved to be one of
the most effective forces in Syria, leading to continued US air support and
eventually weapons.
The victory also gave Syrian Kurds, who were denied statehood
for decades, an opportunity to strengthen and expand their territory.
With Assad still fighting in the West, the Kurds decided to take on ISIS.
The Kurds are
the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State...
Kurdish fighters in Syria have made significant gains...
Killing thousands of fighters and
clawing back territory...
Kurdish-led force launched an offensive today in Syria...
Pushing ISIS further and further back...
Out of their territory in the northeastern city of Hasaka...
We are now within sight of the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.
As Kurdish fighters started liberating these cities, they incorporated their
populations into Rojava.
With the addition of multiethnic populations,
Rojava was renamed the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria,
to reflect the makeup of the region.
And Kurdish fighters merged with non-Kurdish
militias to form the Syrian Democratic Forces, also known as the SDF.
Western media hailed the moment as the birth of a young democracy in the Middle East.
And the Kurds promoted their democratic model as a solution for a post-war Syria.
But reports also claim that the Kurds displaced non-Kurdish populations and
committed human rights abuses.
In the broader region not everyone
supported the Kurdish project.
On one hand the Syrian government denied its
existence and on the other Turkey grew worried as Rojava expanded. See, Turkey
claims the Kurds in Rojava are a front for the PKK, a Kurdish militant group
that's been at war with them since the 1980s and is labeled a terrorist group
by the US and the EU.
So to keep Rojava from becoming a safe haven for the Kurds,
Turkey sent ground troops into Syria here in August 2016, to fight both ISIS
and the SDF, eventually cutting off Afrin from the rest of the Federation.
But the Kurdish offensive continued and in late 2017 it led to the fall of ISIS in
its capital of Raqqa.
The victory marked a big win for the Kurds, but it also opened
up a major threat.
In early 2018 Turkey went back into Afrin and launched
Operation Olive Branch, a full ground offensive against the Syrian Kurds, here.
With ISIS gone, Rojava's partnerships had weakened.
In the absence of a common enemy,
the American motivation for backing the Kurdish fighters has
declined, especially when they're up against Turkey - a NATO ally that the US
relies on.
Now, it's unclear how far turkey will go to keep Syrian Kurds in check,
but without US support their forces are under-equipped and
undermanned, against Turkey's massive military.
In this new phase of the Syrian War,
Rojava has become a vulnerable target.
And the Kurdish dream that was
created by the start of the war is threatened by its end.