Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Middle East International Conference on Contemporary Scientific Studies VII, Bayrut, Lübnan, 3 - 04 Mart 2022, ss.10
Abstract:
The Syrian Kurds were a little-known ethnic group at
the international plethora before the Syrian civil war (Gunter, 2014). However,
the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in March 2011 have provided some
unprecedented opportunities to Kurds compared to the situation before 2011
(Federici, 2015; Allsopp, 2015; 2013; Gunter, 2014). This study analyses the
impact of developments within first five years of the Syrian civil war on the
Kurds and conceptualizes the taken-for-granted opportunities in the context of
the political opportunities. In doing so, the study applies the concept of the
configuration of political opportunities and approaches these opportunities
from the subjectivist perspective of the political opportunities in the
literature on social movements. The subjectivist approach in the literature on
the social movements underlines that opportunities can be seen as political
opportunities not only when they make changes in the political environment that
political actors operate but also when these opportunities are perceived by the
political actors as well as rise their expectations of success or perceived
goal attainment (Opp, 2009). In accordance with such conceptualisation, this
study argues that there have been three critical opportunities which were
perceived and regularly changed the goals and expectation of the success of the
Syrian Kurds within the first five years of the civil war. They are the
outbreak of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, the withdrawal of the Syrian
government forces from the northern quarters of the country with the start of
Aleppo Battle in July 2012, and the Kobane siege of ISIS from September 2014 to
March 2015. By seizing these opportunities, the little-known Syrian Kurds,
particularly the PYD (Partiya Yekitiya Demokrat/Democratic Union Party), the
Syrian affiliate of the terrorist organization, PKK (Partiya Karkeren
Kurdistan/Kurdistan Workers’ Party), has become a political actor in Syria.
Key words:
Political Opportunities, Syrian Civil War, Syrian
Kurds, the PYD, ISIS