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Kurds in Syria triumph over al-Assad’s regime

Loud celebrations take hold in the country’s northeast after the bloodless liberation from regime loyalists.

Members of a Kurdish local self-defence group man a checkpoint on the road to Derik, Syria.
By Giulio Petrocco
Published On 20 Nov 2012

Derik, Syria – Celebratory gunfire rang out in the streets after the last of President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers and police left this predominantly Kurdish city in Syria’s northeast.

A truck blasted Kurdish music from its stereo. People climbed atop the vehicle and delivered speeches in Kurdish language, a practice forbidden for decades in the region.

A few hundred people gathered at “President’s Square” in the city’s centre, where music roared and dozens of women danced in circles holding hands.

Since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011 in Syria, the regime’s forces have loosened their tight grip on Kurdish areas. Last July – overstretched because of the ongoing conflict – part of al-Assad’s forces started to retreat from some enclaves in the region.

Kurdish political parties and People’s Defence Units (YPG) started filling the power vacuum. Over the past two weeks, residents and YPG fighters expelled the remaining regime’s men from several mostly Kurdish towns – gaining autonomy most had never known in their lives.

In almost every case, this happened without violence.

A Kurdish man scrawls over portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad painted in Derik, Syria.
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Kurds celebrate pushing government troops out of a city northern Syria.
Kurds celebrate what they call the "liberation" of a northern city, after so-called "People(***)s Defence Units" pushed forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of town.
Kurdish members of the YPG (People(***)s Defence Units) guard a checkpoint in Derik.
Local militia members stand in front of a statue of Hafez al-Assad, late father of President Bashar al-Assad, as they wait for a heavy truck to tear down the statue.
Kurdish activists bashed the face of a statue of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad with hammers.
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Kurdish citizens of Derik celebrate the withdraw of Syrian government forces from the city.
Namet Ramadan, 16, was the first to hammer the head of a statue of President Bashar al-Assad(***)s late father.
Kurdish fighters guard a checkpoint.
In northern Syria, many Kurds oppose the government of President Bashar al-Assad and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which is fighting the government.
Kurdish residents of northern Syria celebrate after Syrian troops withdraw from a city.