Analysis of Russia’s Positions Toward Syrian Kurds, After the 2011 Developments

Kurd’s call for independence is one of the most stressing factors in the ethnic conflicts in the Middle East. Kurds are mainly deployed in four countries: Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey and Kurds from past to present have experienced long conflicts with the central governments of these countries. Kurds are considered the largest forgotten and stateless nation. The fall of Saddam's regime in Iraq as well as developments in the Middle East after September 2011 event, has provided a historic opportunity for self-expression of the Kurds and the pursuit of their historical demands, especially in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Certainly, this expression will be faced with the reactions of these governments and regional and international powers, based on their interests and strategies in this field, will take a position. This paper reviews the positions of one of the trans-regional powers, namely Russia, toward Syria's Kurds. This study tries to answer the basic question that, what are the positions of Russia toward the Kurds living in Syria, especially after the 2011 developments? After analyzing the situation of the Kurds in Syria and how and why of the positions of Russia versus the Kurd’s claims of independence, the findings of this paper show that Russia, during the crisis in Syria, tries to prevent the disintegration of its long-time ally, Syria and accordingly, its policy is based on preventing the Syrian Kurds to achieve independence. The research method is descriptive - analytical and the analysis of data is performed based on the game theory.