ABSTRACT
The arbitrary nature of the Turkish-Syrian border, which cut Kurdish-inhabited areas in two, left many Syrian Kurds with relatives and long-established connections on the Turkish side of the border. The Syrian regime's military withdrawal from the Kurdish areas soon after the uprising began–although its political presence remained in place–effectively handed them over to Partiya Yekitiya Demokrat control. This gesture could yet prove to have consequences as far-reaching as Saddam Hussein's February 1991 withdrawal of the Iraqi state's presence in Kurdish Iraq. Turkey became actively engaged in the unfolding Syrian drama from its inception in 2011. With Russia's September 2015 military entry into the Syrian theatre in support of Assad, it appeared both that the prospects of Turkey's Syrian allies had dimmed, and that those of its Kurdish and regime foes had risen.
