Andrew Sage

And I had to talk to you about this because I know that you have contacts there.

You have experience with that project, with the people involved.

And yeah, we're here to discuss the fate of Rojava.

In fact, as we're on that topic, I think it's useful to have a brief explanation of the history and ideology behind the Virjava project before we talk about what's happened most recently.

So in brief, the project really began...

in Turkey, where the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, was banned and some of its supporters moved to Syria and founded the Democratic Union Party, or PYD.

Now, this party shared an ideological foundation with the PKK and its founder, Abdullah Öcalan, with the ideology of democratic confederalism, which I'll explain in a second.

Rojava came into being following the Arab Spring of 2011, as various factions of Syrians rose up against President Bashar al-Assad.

And in such a climate of conflict, ISIS rose to prominence to threaten the region as a whole.

So while al-Assad was dealing with other opposition groups in Damascus, he withdrew forces from North Syria, which left the region vulnerable to ISIS and Turkey.

Kurdish groups in North Syria then formed the Kurdish National Council to secure the area, but after an ideological split, the project of Rojava would emerge as a polyethnic polity composed of the cantons of Afrin, Jazeera, and Kobani.

The PYD operates Rojava within a political coalition called the Syrian Democratic Council, or SDC.

The YPG, or People's Defense Units, and the YPJ, or Women's Defense Units, are the paramilitaries forming the bulk of the Political Assembly's military coalition.

which is called the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.

I know it's a lot of acronyms being thrown at you at once.

Right, okay.

I remember reading that the YPG and YPG were forming a good chunk of the SDF.

I suppose maybe that was more recent information that I had seen then.

For sure.

For sure.