Syrian Kurds Warn Iranian Kurds not to Repeat Their Mistakes.
Polat Can, a former Syrian Kurdish military official who helped forge the U.S.–Kurdish alliance during the battle of Kobani, is cautioning Iran’s Kurds that they could be “abandoned” by Western powers, underlining they should receive guarantees before going inside Iran amidst Western media reports that Israel and US (including the CIA) were considering supporting Iranian Kurdish fighters to cross the border.
This is also a popular sentiment among Kurds in Syria and even Iraq. Reuters earlier also reported that Kurdish residents of northeast Syria warned Iran’s Kurds against aligning with the U.S. to fight the Iranian government. Shanaz Ibrahim, the first lady of Iraq, and a Kurd, also on March 5, warned against using Kurds in Iran. “We are not guns for hire,” she posted on X.
Polat Can, a founding member of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), previously served as the group’s representative to the international coalition against ISIS and has extensive experience cooperating with the United States. In 2016, Polat Can gave a plaque to the then US Special Presidential Envoy to Counter ISIS, Brett McGurk, in Kobani, which upset the Turkish government.
During heavy clashes in January this year, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) lost around 80 percent of the territory they once controlled and, under pressure from the United States, signed an agreement with Damascus on January 29. This came as Washington aligned itself with the new Islamist government in Damascus that emerged after the fall of the Assad regime in 2024. This happened after U.S. officials claimed that, given the fall of the Assad regime, the role of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground had expired, despite the fact that the SDF sacrificed 12,000 fighters, including 5,800 Arab fighters.
“The Kurds in Rojhelat (Iranian Kurdistan) should learn from the experience of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan),” Polat Can said in an interview with Khayrion. “The same situation could happen again later, maybe someone, an international or global or Western official, (will say) okay, we never promised the Kurds in Iran anything. We only asked them to fight the regime with us, and now their role is finished, and they should hand over their weapons and their areas to someone. This is exactly what happened in Rojava.”
“The Kurds in Rojhlat (Iranian Kurdistan) should not be misled by this idea; okay, first, let us focus on removing and fighting against this regime, and later we will talk about everything else. Kurds must not be misled by this idea or any other, just verbal or just speech, in closed rooms or behind closed doors.”
James F. Jeffrey, a former American ambassador to Turkey and Iraq in 2018, also told the New York Times that they told the Turkish government that the U.S. alliance with the Kurds was “temporary, tactical, and transactional to defeat ISIS.”
Polat Can underlined that it is not the responsibility of the Kurdish people and Kurdish parties to liberate Iran, unite Iran, or bring democracy to Iran. “This task is much bigger than what the Kurds alone can do. It is the responsibility of all people of Iran and their political forces.”
During the Syrian civil war, the SDF advanced into non-Kurdish areas under U.S. pressure to liberate them from ISIS, including the Arab-majority cities of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. Had they not cooperated with the United States, Washington could have instead backed Turkey, which would have led to cutting the roads between the Kurdish city of Kobani and Hasakah province.
After the fall of the Assad regime, the SDF was asked by the United States and Damascus to give up those areas and integrate the SDF into the new Syrian army, but they refused.
However, Mustafa Mawloudi, deputy secretary general of the opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (PDKI), added that, unlike the SDF, the Iranian Kurds have no plans to expand their presence to non-Kurdish areas.
“The Peshmerga would not go to Tehran; we have organized the Peshmerga forces for our Kurdish regions in Iran. Our activities [so far] have been focused only on Rojhelat Kurdistan. For other regions in Iran, the people would need to decide what happens,” Mawloudi said.
“We believe in a federal Iran in which Kurdistan would have its rights within a free, democratic, and secular Iran. The Kurds must be given the right to administrate their regions and participate in a future Iran’s political, economic, and military system as well as the civil sector. We don’t find it right to deploy the Kurdish forces to places like Tehran, Tabriz, Esfahan, and elsewhere.”
There are also major differences in geography and demography between Syrian Kurds and Iranian Kurds. In Syria, the 2.5 million Kurds are spread over three non-contiguous enclaves of Jazira (Hasakah province), Kobani, and Afrin. However, in Iran, there are over 10 million Kurds, the majority of whom are living in a contiguous area, in the Kurdistan Region of Iran.
The Iranian Kurds have historical experiences of being abandoned by foreign powers: after establishing the Kurdistan Republic in Mahabad in 1946 with Soviet support, they were later abandoned, resulting in Tehran again reestablishing control over the Kurdish areas in Iran.
Baba Sheikh Hosseini, the Secretary General of the Organization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle, also known as Khabat, also added that the U.S. were allied to the Kurds against ISIS in Syria, not against the Syrian President Ahmad Al-Shara. “These are two different things. What they have done for Kurds in Syria is a lot. The Kurdish American alliance was not against Ahmed al-Shara but against ISIS.”
Nevertheless, he confirmed that the concerns of Syrian Kurds over the future of Iranian Kurds are valid. “In the world of politics, interests play significant roles. Every side naturally follows their interests; hence we [the Iranian Kurdish parties] understand that at the event of entering a plan together with the US, the US will not do that to us [abandon us].”
The former YPG official Polat Can warned the Iranian Kurds to be very careful when asked to participate in a military campaign, unless there are clear and publicly documented guarantees about the future and the political status of Kurds in Iran.
“If there are no documented promises, the Kurds should not engage in any military campaign,” he said, adding that the Kurds should not enter such a deal if there is no support for a federal system in Iran and no acceptance of Kurds to have their own region in a partnership with a new government in Iran with a clear constitutional system and international guarantees.”
It still remains unclear whether Iranian Kurdish parties will return from exile to western Iran (Iranian Kurdistan), particularly as reports suggest the Donald Trump administration has stepped back from plans to support them. Yet the plan might be brought back to the table if the war continues.
Former CIA officer Sam Faddis, who led a team in 2002 to prepare for the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, suggests it is a bad idea. “I don’t know anything about current CIA programs to arm Kurdish forces and overthrow the Iranian government. If I did, I could not discuss them. I am very skeptical of the idea of trying to use a minority group inside Iran to topple the government in Tehran,” he said.
“Small groups of CIA officers and SF (Special Forces) personnel working with American air power could not topple the Iranian government. That would suppose the existence of large, organized opposition forces inside the country. No such forces exist,” he added.
“There is no reasonable prospect right now of opposition forces toppling the Iranian government. If it falls, which I doubt, it will be because of a coup by senior people within the regime who decide they have had enough and the country is being led to ruin.”
“Kurdish blood is not cheap; if the Kurds want to do anything, they must do it for themselves and their own interests,” Polat Can concluded. “The Kurds in Rojhlat should learn from the experiences in Rojava. The same situation could happen again.”
