‘Until Kurds feel their rights are protected, they will have reservations about integrating’: Opinion

The Kurdish perspective on the latest events is that it is a “tragic return to conflict”, Meghan Bodette, the director of research at the Kurdish Peace Institute, has told Al Jazeera. She said it marks a “political failure in Syria” to move past the concept of a highly centralized Arab Sunni Muslim-dominated state and to move towards a more ethnically and religiously pluralist and decentralized mode of governance and security. “Until the Kurds feel as though their rights and existence will be protected in the new state, they have many reservations about integrating and fear of the presence of government forces in their regions,” she said.