The Complex and Dynamic Relationship of Syria’s Kurds with Syrian Borders: Continuities and Changes

Abstract

The establishment of the ‘Islamic Caliphate’ in 2014 over a territory that comprised portions of the Iraqi and Syrian state as well as the self-declared Kurdish ‘federal’ scheme in Northern Syria nourished the perception that the so-called Sykes-Picot system had collapsed. However, scholars should be cautious. For one, non-state actors can reshape international borders just as well as states can—i.e., with similar functions, albeit with different political agendas. These agendas include acquiring a means to gain material and symbolic resources; as a process of (b)ordering local societies; as a political asset within the international system; and, finally, as ‘shielding borders’ in the face of external threats. In so doing, non-state actors might replace state authorities as institutions that hold the legitimate use of force in a territory while contributing to the permanence of state borders. The chapter thus argues that since the establishment of the Syrian state, Kurdish populations and local political actors have developed a complex and dynamic relationship with the post-World War I borders. Crucially, the analysis of PYD discourse (pamphlets, online outlets and school textbooks) and practice points out the continuities and changes with regard to the relationship of the main Kurdish political party with state borders as well as with the concept of Greater Kurdistan.