Syria's Kurds, who have lost a large part of the region under their control in two Turkish attacks in 2018 and 2019, as well as Turkey's agreements with Russia in October 2019, face new problems, including weak possibilities for the outbreak of the Coronna disease, the resurgence of IS prisoners and the slow process of negotiations with the central government over the fate of the Kurdish region in the north of the war-torn country. The United States, once identified itself as the sole supporter of Syrian Kurds, has now limited its presence to protecting oil wells in northeast and east, and the US president is still seeking to pull out hundreds of US troops out of the region.

The Kurdpress agency interviewed Dr. Giuseppe Acconcia, a Lecturer of Geopolitics of the Middle East, Media and Social Movements in the Middle East.

A visiting scholar at the University of California (UCLA - Center for Near Eastern Studies) and a Lecturer in Cattolica University in Milan (Aseri) who holds a PhD at the University of London (Goldsmiths), Dr. Acconcia told Kurdpress that the existence of Syrian Kurds and the Northern Syrian Authority is in serious danger, and oil in the Kurdish-controlled areas cannot prohibit this danger. He reiterated that Turkey is a great threat to the Syrian Kurds and is still putting maximum pressure on Kurds and uses all means to fight against the Kurds, even water.

What follows are his answers to Kurdpress questions;

As you have stated in one of your articles, “Is the Rojava dream at risk”, do you believe that, right now, the Kurdish administration in Syria is in danger?

Yes, Rojava is in danger after the 2018 Olive Branch Operation and the 2019 Operation Spring of Peace, led by the Turkish army. In other words, with the decision, partially revised, of the US army to withdraw from Northern Syria, and the al-Assad regime, backed by Russia, that needs to control the full Syrian territory and the Turkish intention to prevent the territorial continuity of the Rojava region, their dream of democratic authonomy is at risk. In more general terms this is happening to all the Kurdish attempts to have further rights and autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan, among Turkish Kurds and the Iranian Kurdish provinces.

Who will help the Syrian Kurds: U.S, Russia, or maybe it is better for the Kurds to have a deal with Damascus?

The Kurds in Syria know that the help coming from the US is only tacticle. Moreover, as much as they dislike the Turkish intervention in the region, they do with the al-Assad regime and the support given to him by Russia. However, it is true that, when they are under threat of a full scale Turkish invasion they prefer to accept some help from Damascus instead of fully disappearing killed or occupied by the Turkish army, as it is currently happening in the Afrin Canton.

US President Donald Trump says he has the Syrian oil and so he will help the Kurds. Can the Syrian oil save the Kurds and thier autonomous administration?

No, the Iraqi Kurds have a lot of oil and, despite that and a Referendum for their authonomy, held in 2018, they did not achieve any kind of formal authonomy. What can save the Rojava project, it is its grassroot implementation with the involvement of local young people and women. This goes beyond a territorial independence and it is related to a progressive project of equality, environmental sustainability, peace and participation.

Turkey uses water as a weapon against Syrian Kurds, the UN and WHO do not help the Kurds to fight against Coronavirus and they have to deal with IS riots in prisons. What is the problem?

The distruction of Hasakeyf is an example that makes clear to what exptent the Turkish authorites dont care about the protection of heritage and they will use the dam, as usual, as a tool to facilitate the assimilation of Kurdish people into the Turkish society. On the other hand, the conditions of Kurdish prisoners in Turkey has been worsen with the measures undertaked to face covid-19. This has been a pretext for the Turkish authorities to justify thighter detention conditions for all political prisoners (they are at least 30,000 after the 2016 failed military coup), practice torture (as it happenend to Mustafa Kocak), preventing measures of self isolations for detainees often already weakened by diseases and hunger strikes.

Reporter’s code: 50101