Kurdistan in the Tempest of Maps: The Resilience of Identity in the Face of the Machiavellianism of International Interests

In the Middle East, politics is not governed by morality, but by the balances of fear and interest, where maps of influence are drawn more in blood than in ink. At the heart of this harsh landscape stands the Kurd, for an entire century, confronting the very question of existence itself: how can a people possessing such a long history of sacrifice remain perpetually suspended between the promises of great powers and the daggers of geography? Kurdistan, with all that it symbolizes historically and existentially, has been transformed into an open arena for the clash of regional and international projects, while the Kurd, at every stage, is compelled not to choose the shape of victory, but merely the shape of loss.

The pressures exerted upon the Kurdish leadership during recent years were never merely passing political disagreements. Rather, they formed part of a broader process aimed at reshaping the entire region, through which major and regional powers sought to subordinate Kurdish will to the logic of coercive balances. The message, repeated in varying forms, was unmistakable: either bow before the new maps of influence,´-or-confront chaos, isolation, and siege. Thus, once again, the Kurd found himself trapped within a cruel historical equation in which survival itself became a form of resistance.

Within this context, the “SDF” evolved into a political knot extending far beyond the borders of Rojava itself. The issue was no longer confined to its military´-or-political role, but rather to the nature of the position into which it had been placed within the game of nations. In the eyes of many, this force was employed as a multi-function-al instrument: at times to fight داعش, at times to pressure Damascus, and at other times as a tool of regional blackmail between Washington and Ankara. Herein lies the greater tragedy, when the blood of Kurdish youth is transformed into bargaining material upon the tables of international interests, and immense sacrifices become nothing more than figures within the calculations of geopolitics.

The United States, which provided military support to the SDF, did not act out of belief in Kurdish national rights, but according to the logic of strategic interests. When regional priorities shifted, political language shifted as well, from the discourse of “partnership” to that of “integration” and reconfiguration within the structure of the Syrian state. Turkey, meanwhile, never viewed any independent Kurdish entity merely as a security threat, but rather as a philosophical threat to the very idea of the Turkish nation-state itself. For Ankara, the problem was never simply weapons, but the possibility that the Kurd might raise his head as the bearer of a cause and an identity.

Yet the Kurdish tragedy did not arise solely from external forces, but also from internal fragmentation. Kurdish political division allowed regional powers to transform internal disputes into instruments of pressure and penetration. Amid rival axes, from Sulaymaniyah to Qandil, and from narrow partisan calculations to external dependencies, the national project was often lost among conflicting loyalties. Here lies the profound philosophical catastrophe: a people possessing immense historical memory, geography, culture, poetry, and endless sacrifice, yet still unable to establish a unified national center of decision capable of protecting its existence from becoming a card in the hands of others.

And yet, the scene cannot be reduced to the simplistic binary of betrayal and loyalty,´-or-heroism and defeat. Kurdish leadership finds itself besieged within a complex geopolitical minefield, where the pressures of Ankara, Tehran, Baghdad, and Damascus intersect, and where any miscalculated step may trigger the possibility of total explosion. Thus, Kurdish politics often appears as a perpetual attempt to postpone catastrophe rather than manufacture victory. However, the Kurdish street, burdened by the memory of historical abandonment, sees matters differently, because it feels that Kurdish cities are repeatedly left alone before the storms, as occurred at pivotal moments throughout modern history.

Today, the Kurd faces a vast front of contradictory interests which, despite all their differences, converge upon one objective: preventing the emergence of an independent Kurdish will. From Ankara to Tehran, from Baghdad to Damascus, extending to transnational militias and local alliances tied to external powers, Kurdistan appears besieged by the logic of “everyone against the Kurd.” Every power in the region desires a Kurd on its own terms: Turkey wants a Kurd stripped of identity, Iran wants a subordinate Kurd, Damascus wants a Kurd devoid of political memory, while international powers want a Kurd who fulfills his temporary role and then disappears silently once he is no longer needed.

Despite all this, the deeper truth remains that the Kurdish cause has not died, because the Kurds are not merely a political organization´-or-a military formation that can be dismantled´-or-absorbed. They are a historical memory stretching across thousands of years. This truth is precisely what unsettles all their adversaries, for they understand that peoples may be militarily defeated, but they do not disappear so long as they preserve their collective consciousness and inner will. Therefore, the Kurdish tragedy lies not only in being stateless, but in living perpetually within the maps of others, forced each time to defend their most basic right: the right to exist.

In the end, Kurdish steadfastness, despite wounds, divisions, and betrayals, remains the one truth that none of the region’s projects has managed to break. The Kurd, who has repeatedly risen from beneath the rubble, still stands before the world carrying his memory and his right to life and dignity. And whenever the great powers believe the cause has ended, they rediscover that peoples are not measured solely by the number of rifles they possess, but by their capacity to remain alive in the face of long attempts at erasure.

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