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Very interesting survey. I'd agree that 600 is not much to go by and that it is obviously skewed by not including the areas where Kurds and others are actively under attack by Turkey now. Nevertheless, quite a bit of it rings true. I agree with Nick that "Whatever the precise validity of the results, it likely reflects a large proportion of Arab people, in these areas, opposing the revolutionary administration." Unfortunately, Nick is so starry-eyed about the "revolutionary administration" that he can't imagine that Arabs might have their own reasons to not like being ruled over by a Kurdish militia (and one with plenty of non-Syrian Kurds in command). According to Nick, the reason a lot of Arabs in the region might oppose PYD rule is because of "the Arab chauvinism propagated by the regime and many rebel groups and the anti-Kurdish racism propagated by Turkey." Geez Nick, about the liberation of the oppressed being the work of the oppressed themselves and all that, so when ISIS was evicted from Raqqa by so many US bombs that thousands of civilians were killed and 90% of the city destroyed, in marched the SDF and the first thing they did? Erected a gigantic portrait of Ocalan - a Kurd from Turkey - to dominate the city, inhabited by Syrian Arabs. Highly symbolic. I recommend having a read of Elizabeth Tsurkov here for a more nuanced view of the issue of the effective domination of the official multi-ethnic Federation structures by a Kurdish party: https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/79542 and think about the struggles that have already taken place against SDF rule in the region (eg https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/05/syria-deir-ez-zor-shuhail-protests-sdf-killing-arabs.html#ixzz5pwBnNwTG) even before the SDF's deal with Assad. Obviously the people see SDF rule as infinitely better than that of Assad, but of course now there is generalised revolt in Deir Ezzor against the prospect of Assad's forces returning as part of the SDF-Assad deal. If Nick thinks these uprisings and movements and attitudes of Syrian Arabs in the northeast is all caused by "Arab chauvinism" (yeh, how chauvinist to not want to be ruled by a Kurdish militia) I think he needs to check his SDF romanticism a little. I'm more surprised at the idea that 23% of Kurds might support the Turkish invasion. It doesn;t ring true, especially given the fact that the anti-PYD Kurdish parties grouped in the Kurdish national Council (KNC) have condemned the invasion, and even the Iraqi Kurdish leadership has. As for most Arabs in the region preferring a return of ISIS over a return of Assad, admittedly it is hard to imagine anyone desiring a return of a regime as facist and totalitarian as that of ISIS. However, there probably is more to it than people want to believe. Those who immediately brush it off as rubbish probably have no idea what it means to live under the fascist and totlaitarian Assad regime. The fact that so many westerners - governemnt spokeseople and ordinary people, including leftists, alike, can be heard saying that Assad is bad but he is a better alternative than ISIS, is evidence mostly of ignorance. If there's anything to this poll, it tells us who doesn't know anything about what's happening ion the ground, who has no idea of how ordinary Syrians feel, as John O'Brien alludes to. https://syriadirect.org/news/after-decades-of-suppression-kurdish-residents-in-syria%E2%80%99s-north-find-linguistic-freedom/ > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
