Source: Ha’aretz
By Alexander Griffing
As the war in Syria unfolded and President Bashar Assad pulled his troops out of the Kurdish northeast to quell uprisings in the country’s western population centers, Syria’s Kurds – with U.S. support – took it upon themselves to defeat the Islamic State on their territory.
As the Kurds pushed ISIS back in brutal battles in first Kobani and later Raqqa, Rojava – or “The land where the sun sets” – began to take shape.
The autonomous state was declared in 2014. While it was never officially recognized by Assad, the United Nations or NATO, it had the de facto support of the United States since its inception, as the Americans provided Kurdish fighters with air cover and weapons in their fight against ISIS. But now, with President Donald Trump ordering the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s looming threats to attack, the days of Kurdish autonomy in Syria appear to be numbered.
Read more at: https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-abandons-the-kurds-in-syria-will-turkey-now-crush-their-secular-utopia-1.6765593?fbclid=IwAR1h3wRgWeIsT87gz_UCPqPKs4C2A2tx0Eg4TpU5u–vDE8jkfszsqiPobY