In late October 2013, as the civil war raged in Syria, Muslim fighters captured the strategic town of Yarubiyah on the Iraq-Syria border. The loss of Yarubiyah was a defeat for jihadist rebel groups trying to overthrow embattled dictator Bashar Al-Assad. However, their defeat did not come at the hands of Assad's forces. In the midst of the civil war, a third party has strengthened its stake in Syria's future: the Kurds. Initially insisting on their neutrality at the start of the conflict, the Kurds soon took control of a large swath of territory in northern Syria. But after more than two years of fighting, the Kurds now find themselves defending themselves from extremist rebel groups invading their land. In this “civil war within the Syrian civil war,” the Kurds are, as one Kurdish fighter put it, “fighting America's war on terrorism right here on the ground.” But this struggle for autonomy is fundamentally nothing new for the Syrian Kurds. Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent formation of the Syrian state, the Kurds of Syria have struggled for recognition. It was a battle not only for national self-determination, but also, essentially, for the most basic human rights. Today, the Kurds are the largest non-Arab minority in Syria, with a population of approximately 1.7 million (10% of the Syrian population). The Kurdish population is largely Sunni, which is the dominant Muslim group in Syria. The country, surprisingly, has a relatively good history in terms of religious tolerance. The Kurds speak their own language, Kirmanji, and are grouped in three main areas in the north of the country: 'Ain' Arab and Afrin along the northern border with Turkey, and Jazira in the north-east, nestled... in the center of paper ......the names replace the original names of the Kurdish cities. The Syrian constitution, adopted in 1973, makes numerous references to achieving the goals of the “Arab nation” and, while it makes numerous references to protecting citizens' rights, recognizes only those living in the “Arab regions” as part of the nation. Kurdish Political Organization Faced with this repression, the Kurds founded a new political party, the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) in 1957. However, the Syrian government quickly relented and the party disintegrated in 1960, leaving the Syrian Kurds ever since without any organized local leadership. Growing unrest About a decade before the civil war broke out in Syria, Kurds in the country were already starting to aggressively advocate for better treatment. During a football match in the Qamishli neighborhood in 2004