Washington has recently begun providing the YPG, Syria’s dominant Kurdish militia, with heavy weapons in preparation for its assault on Raqqa, the capital of Islamic State (IS). The YPG, like the Kurdish militias operating in neighboring Iraq, has proved itself a brave and effective fighting force against IS. But, explains Kyle Orton, its Stalinist ideology, repressive governance, and the fact that it is an extension of the PKK—a Kurdish separatist terrorist group based in Turkey—make it an unsuitable U.S. ally:
As the uprising widened in Syria during the summer of 2012, government forces retreated from areas in the north of the country, leaving the [YPG’s political arm] in control. The Assad regime’s intention was to keep the Kurds out of the rebellion [while sowing] dissension among antigovernment groups. Notwithstanding occasional skirmishes with Kurdish fighters, Damascus continues to underwrite the YPG-held areas, even though it opposes any long-term federalist solution for the country. . . .
[S]ince capturing territory in Syria, the YPG has worked to monopolize power, establishing a one-party system that has suppressed Kurdish opponents as well as leaders and activists from other communities. The YPG has arrested hundreds of political prisoners. . . . About 150 people were abducted by the YPG in 2013 alone. . . . The YPG has also engaged in targeted assassinations against Kurdish opposition politicians. . . .
The group has struggled to secure its legitimacy [among Kurds] because it refuses to include other Kurdish voices and remains fundamentally focused on Turkey, seeing Syria merely as a springboard for supporting the PKK’s insurgency against Turkey’s government. This threatening posture has led to a blockade against them and considerable hardship for Syrian Kurds. American support has reinforced these dynamics by empowering the PKK’s military commanders and making local civilian administrators in [Syrian Kurdistan] beholden to them. . . .
More important even than increasing tension with Turkey are the effects on the ground in Syria. Unfortunately, the American-led coalition has tended to play into Islamic State’s hands by displacing the jihadist group with forces viewed by local Sunni Arab populations as alien and sectarian. An American-backed YPG takeover of Raqqa will likely repeat this error, creating anew the conditions that led to the rise of Islamic State.
Read more on New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/syria-kurds-isis-raqqa.html?_r=0