Watch Webinar – What’s Next for Syria’s Embattled Kurds?
Click here to read a transcript.
On January 18, after days of clashes, Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that they had reached a ceasefire deal. Just a day later, the agreement appeared to fall through, possibly auguring a return to fighting. The reported agreement’s terms were far less favorable to the SDF than what it had sought to achieve in negotiations. It would have brought SDF forces and SDF-controlled territory under Damascus’s control, seemingly ending the autonomy Syria’s Kurds had enjoyed for more than a decade. While U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack claimed the new developments would facilitate “our long-time Kurdish partners’ full onboarding into a united, inclusive Syria,” the trend appears to be moving in the opposite direction.
To evaluate the latest developments in Syria’s ongoing unrest, JINSA hosted a discussion with three leading experts on the issue: JINSA Distinguished Scholar and former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman, JINSA’s Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow John Hannah, and JINSA Fellow for Kurdish Affairs Giran Ozcan.
JINSA Vice President for Policy Blaise Misztal moderated the discussion.
Amb. Eric Edelman Amb. Eric Edelman is a JINSA Distinguished Scholar and the Co-Chair of JINSA’s Iran Policy Project and JINSA’s Eastern Mediterranean Policy Project. Amb. Edelman is the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, and held a range of other senior positions in government. |
John Hannah John Hannah is JINSA’s Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow. He served as former Vice President Dick Cheney’s National Security Advisor from 2005-2009 and as Vice President Cheney’s Deputy National Security Advisor for the Middle East from 2001-2005. |
Giran Ozcan Giran Ozcan is Fellow for Kurdish Affairs at JINSA. Prior to JINSA, Giran served as Executive Director of the Kurdish Peace Institute. He previously worked with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in its overseas representative offices and served as the HDP Representative to the United States of America. |
Blaise Misztal Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. His research interests include Iran and its nuclear program, U.S.-Turkey relations, countering extremism, and strategic competition. Most recently, Blaise was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute. |