Rojava and the Geopolitics of Betrayal

by Rezgar Omer

Since 2011, emerging from an ideological trajectory distinct from the jihadist factions within Syria, the revolution of the peoples of Northern Syria rose as a grassroots movement demanding human dignity and fundamental rights. Today, however, this experiment faces a draconian international conspiracy.

Built upon the ruins of the centralized Ba’athist state through the collective participation of Kurdish, Arab, and Christian communities, Rojava presented an advanced model of “Democratic Confederalism”, proving that self-governance is possible without external intervention (Knapp, Flach, & Ayboğa, 2016). Yet, the military offensives of 2025 by the Syrian state, bolstered by Turkish coordination and the financial backing of Gulf States, particularly Qatar, have dealt a devastating blow to this project. By contracting the geography of the revolution into two isolated, besieged enclaves, the powers involved have weaponized the deprivation of water, food, electricity, medicine, and the internet. As reported in recent diplomatic appeals, these are indicators of a campaign to liquidate a population in silence and darkness (Ehmed, 2026).

The New Face of ISIS: State-Engineered Reaction

According to political observers, what we are witnessing today is a systematic effort to permanently eradicate this democratic entity. Behind the curtain of the Washington-Ankara “understandings,” the cause of Northern Syria has been commodified. High-level analysis suggests that the Rojava experience is now being treated by global powers as an “expired” asset, sacrificed to reintegrate a unitary Syrian state (Barrack, 2026).

This shift coincides with the region becoming a violent theater for energy corridor control. Human dignity and democratic achievements are being marginalized by insatiable economic interests. This is most evident in the “New ISIS”, a synthesis of former jihadist groups now reorganized within the framework of the Syrian state apparatus. While the original Caliphate was an imperialist-manufactured eruption, its current iteration bears the fingerprints of a regional conspiracy intended to redraw the map for new geopolitical ambitions.

The Proxy Trap and the Ghost of Afrin

The tragedy of Rojava lies in a foundational contradiction: the tension between its internal project of liberation and its temporary alignment with U.S. strategy. As Edward Hunt argued in Jacobin, the U.S. military partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was never an endorsement of Rojava’s anti-capitalist foundations; Washington viewed the Kurds merely as “proxies” whose egalitarian experiments were a nuisance to be tolerated only as long as they served the “War on Terror” (Hunt, 2018).

The current retreat toward a centralized Syrian state fulfills a long-standing U.S. desire to replace revolutionary leadership with an “obedient” alternative. This betrayal is the fruit of the silence that began in 2018 during the invasion of the Afrin canton. When a pluralistic society was transformed into a field of ethnic cleansing, the world remained silent. Afrin served as a laboratory for the demographic engineering and systematic dismantling of secular, feminist politics we see today (openDemocracy, 2018).

The Sociological Miracle: Rebuilding the Subject

Despite being besieged by state armies and abandoned by former “allies,” the resistance in Kobani and the northern cantons persists. The secret of this movement lies in a rare “sociological reconstruction” of the human being that enables resistance under the most grueling conditions.

Before Rojava was a military force, it was a philosophical and social strategy. Their technique centered on developing human capability at the individual and communal levels, teaching us that the rebuilding of the “political subject” must precede the building of institutions (Knapp, Flach, & Ayboğa, 2016). When we see the people of Kobani and Hasakah region standing against state armies, we are seeing a “collective will” that transcends conventional political definitions.

The Ceasefire and Peace Agreement

The agreement signed on January 30^th between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian government is essentially a compromise rather than a capitulation (Hubenko 2026). It represents perhaps the only viable tactic for survival at this moment. The forces arrayed against the SDF include not only the Syrian army, but also a coalition of regional states that have officially declared their support for Damascus. Furthermore, international organizations have effectively refused to invoke their own laws to protect the region from the threat of genocide, a threat that remains imminent, especially as recent events have resulted in the resurgence of ISIS and its ideology.

Bolstered by the most progressive elements of Kurdish society in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and the diaspora, and supported by sections of the global Left, the SDF insists on the “survival of its project.” This is pursued not only through a disciplined military defense adapted to this harsh geopolitical siege, but also by signaling the catastrophic consequences of the project’s total collapse. In areas where the SDF is no longer present, security has completely disintegrated: tribal wars over plunder, clashes between clans and the Syrian army over oil revenues, and ISIS revenge attacks against certain Arab tribes all serve as a grim preview of the chaos that waits as the only alternative. It is abundantly clear that if the SDF project is liquidated, the hope for a multi-ethnic and non-sectarian Middle East will be extinguished with it.

Conclusion: A Choice for the Global Left

If Rojava falls in 2026, it marks the final collapse of the “right to have rights” in the face of global capital. The international community, and specifically the Western Left, must recognize that their governments’ “neutrality” is a moral retreat. Furthermore, the Left must escape the lethal stereotype that dismisses Rojava as a “U.S. proxy”, a logic that fails to analyze the reality of Turkey and the Gulf states supporting a New Syrian Army that carries the exact same ideology as Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Rojava proved that feminism, ecology, and democracy are universal human possibilities. If this experience is traded for Qatari gas and Turkish hegemony, it proves that “democracy” in the 21st century is merely a conditional privilege. The struggle in Rojava is a challenge to the global conscience: is our commitment to liberation authentic, or is it a discourse that lasts only until a more profitable contract arrives?