The Syrian Kurds lost about 11,000 troops in the war against the ISIS, which allowed them to control large parts of the Syrian territory. Although Western officials have praised the role of the Kurds in the fight against ISIS, they have done little to help the Kurds in the face of a widespread Turkish invasion that drove Kurdish forces out of large parts of northern Syria. Dr. Nikolaos van Dam, a former Dutch diplomat and former special envoy to Syria in 2015 and 2016, called the events as parts of political realism and said: "In fact, there is no such thing as 'appreciation' in political realism."

The winner of the Syrian war

The diplomat believes no one has won the war in Syria and said: "There is no winner of the Syrian war, but rather losers; and the Syrian people in their millions are the biggest losers of all, whether they are under regime control or elsewhere."

Agreement between Syrian Kurds and Damascus

Dr Nikolaos van Dam is a former Dutch diplomat who, between 1988 and 2010, served as the ambassador of the Netherlands to Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Germany and Indonesia, and as the Dutch Special Envoy for Syria between 2015 and 2016 said about the reason behind the failure of the Kurds in Syria and the Syrian central government in Damascus to reach an agreement that "the Syrian Kurds dominated by the PYD/YPG want political autonomy, but Damascus – being an authoritarian regime - wants to reestablish full control over all of Syria and therefore considers Kurdish political autonomy as a potential element undermining its national authority. Other Kurdish parties ask for administrative autonomy, which is less far reaching. A complicating factor is that the areas with a Kurdish majority in northern Syria consist of three separate enclaves, which are not geographically connected, and therefore do not constitute a geographic continuum, like for instance the mountainous Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq."

The options of the Kurds

"In practice, the Syrian Kurds do not have that many options. In the long run, the US is bound to give priority to its own strategic interests, and these can change from time to time. US-Turkish relations are considered by Washington to be more important than its relations with the Kurds, now that Islamic State has practically been defeated with the YPG playing an important role in it," he said about the situation of the Kurds and their options in the current situation in Syria.

About the reason behind the presence of the US forces in the Syrian Kurdish-controlled regions, Dr. Van Dam stated that "The American presence in northern Syria at present is not so much motivated by the intention to help the Kurds, but rather to make it difficult for the Syrian regime to recover the area. At the same time the US presence is meant as a counterforce to Russia and Iran."

The former Dutch envoy further told Kurdpress that both Damascus and Moscow are willing to protect the Kurds in the north as "Damascus and Russia have an interest in protecting the Kurdish majority areas against American and Turkish domination and occupation, not so much to help the Kurds, but rather to regain full sovereignty and control over the whole of Syria, with or without the Kurds."

He further stated that "Priority for the PYD [Syrian pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party] could be to ally itself with the party or parties that can help it best in realizing its Kurdish nationalist objectives, which means engaging in shifting alliances, because there is not any of the directly involved parties which places the interests of the Kurds above its own interests,"

Turkey and the Syrian Kurds

"Turkey is against Kurdish autonomy in Syria, if only because it will further encourage the aim of Kurdish autonomy in Turkey as aimed for by the PKK. Moreover, PKK and PYD are sister parties working closely together and helping one another. And the PKK is considered by Ankara to be an enemy of the Turkish Republic. As the Kurds in Syria and Turkey are interlinked, Turkey can be expected to remain a threatening enemy towards the Syrian Kurds, as long as Ankara is not prepared to accept the aim of the Kurds in Turkey to have their autonomy," Dr. Van Dam said about continuing Turkey threats against the Kurds and the reason behind the threats.

Kurds and saving their autonomous administration

The former diplomat went on to say that further political and cultural successes of the Kurds in Syria depends on the continuing support of the foreign powers in the country and stated that "thanks to the war in Syria, the Kurdish identity cannot any longer be suppressed as before. Having leverage or not, depends to a large extent on outside forces that would be willing to support the Kurdish aim of having an autonomous administration. As long as the war is not over, and foreign forces are still present in Syria favoring the Kurds as a strategic ally, the latter have some leverage.

He further warned that "once those forces have left, however, such a leverage is bound to evaporate to a large extent, because in realpolitik there is hardly anything that can be called ‘gratitude’."

Dr. Van Dam ultimately reiterated that the Kurds and Damascus should make peace and advised Damascus that "it will be in the interest of Damascus to recognize the Syrian Kurdish identity as an integral part of a multi-ethnic and multi-sectarian Syrian state, in which the Syrian national identity prevails over the other identities."

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