AP Photo

Since the summer of 2012, the beleaguered Syrian regime has all but abandoned areas predominantly inhabited by Kurds. So far, the main beneficiary of this situation of quasi-autonomy for a “West Kurdistan” appears to be the Democratic Union Party (PYD) – a powerful Syrian Kurdish group established in 2003 by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants of Syrian origin in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq. The largely bloodless withdrawal of the Syrian army and security forces in the north and northeast of the country – as well as tensions between the PYD and other revolutionary actors – has given rise to a host of suspicions about the group’s motivations, as well as its national and regional designs.