On 20 January, the Turkish Army and several jihadist groups began the invasion of the autonomous Kurdish canton of Afrin with Russian permission. Since then, more than 200 civilians have died in the bombings and hundreds of combatants have died in both parts of the country.

The battle began when the defeat of the opposition against the Islamic State and the government of Syria was evident. So why has the flame of war re-emerged and, moreover, against the Kurds?

The Syrian War has become a bloody chess game of the world powers and the countries of the East, and in that situation the stateless peoples are the losers, for example the Kurds. In this regard, the Kurds have embarked on the third route in Syria to ensure their political survival, and have opted for Democratic Confederalism, without aligning themselves with Assad and the opposition. In addition, in 2016, agreements were reached with the two major powers, with the United States to defeat the Islamic State to the east of Euphrates and with the Russians to the west to prevent a Turkish invasion in the isolated canton of Afrín.

So why is everything wrong now? On the one hand, the Kurds have expanded their area of influence in eastern Syria (Mambij, Raqa, Shadadi, Deir Ez Zour) and, for the time being, most of the fighters are Arabs in the Syrian Democratic Forces (alliance led by the Kurds). The United States may wish to take full advantage of this territory to reduce the influence of Iran and Russia to the extent possible. The protection of the Kurds by the United States has caused great alarm in Turkey, the United States' main partner in the Middle East. That is why the Turks have become the priority against the Kurds and not against the government of Bashar Al Assad in Turkey.

The Russians have
managed better than anyone to change Russia’s strategy in Turkey. To begin with, in the battle of Aleppo, they agreed with the Turks that the jihadist forces would move from this important city to the north of Syria to prevent the connection of the Kurdish canteens. In this case, Russia opened airspace to Turkey for the first time. Once the link was broken, the Russians reached an agreement with the Kurds to defend the corner of Afrín. In this way, they all left open the possibility of extending these agreements in the future. Since then, Russia has stepped up its relations with Turkey, which has sold it air defence missiles and, moreover, will use gas to soften its dependence on Ukraine, and seeing that the Kurds did not give it the political and military control of Bashar Al Assad Afrin, it has given Turkey every facility to attack the Kurds.