Development of Kurdish national consciousness in conditions of Syrian armed conflict.

Abstract

The article analyzes the influence of the armed conflict in Syria on the development of the Kurdish national consciousness. A particular attention is paid to determining the preconditions and challenges faced by the Syrian Kurds in the process of designing their own autonomy. Thus, the author stressed that the beginning of the armed conflict in Syria, on the one hand, destabilized the situation in the region, but on the other hand, opened the window of opportunity for the Syrian Kurds who suffered institutionalized discrimination before 2011. An event study in Syria in the context of an armed conflict indicates the transformation of the Syrian Kurds into one of the leading players in the fight against any force that could threaten the autonomy of their country in the north, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, built on the principles of a social contract. The content analysis of the temporary (Charter of Social Contract) and the permanent Constitution ("Social Contract of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria") of Rojava gives grounds to conclude that the autonomy of the Syrian Kurds is based on the innovative legal system, from the point of view of international law and the entire international the community. However, the internal split, both within the Kurdish national movement in Syria and in the entire kurdish dialogue, assistance given to the Syrian Kurds from both the United States and Russia with the fundamental differences between these states regarding the Syrian conflict, the terrorist threat from the IS and the total dependence of Kurdish combatants on external supplies of weapons made the author to conclude that it will be very difficult for the Kurds of Syria to continue their existence as an independent fragment that splits off the fragmented republic. That is why the key task for the Syrian Kurds is to preserve a truly working autonomy within Syria, which is still undergoing the process of political transformation.

However, it is obvious that in case of preservation of territorial integrity, Syria after the end of the civil war will be radically different from Syria before 2011. It is the enhanced role of the Kurdish factor that will determine the new policy of post-crisis Syria, in which the Kurds are given one of the main roles.