In late October 2013, as Syria's civil war raged, 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 was not due to Assad's forces. In the midst of the civil war, a third party has strengthened its stake in the future of Syria: the Kurds. Initially insisting on their neutrality at the start of the conflict, the Kurds quickly took control of a large part of the territory of northern Syria. But after more than two years of fighting, the Kurds now find themselves defending themselves against extremist rebel groups encroaching on their land. In this "civil war within the Syrian civil war," the Kurds, as one Kurdish fighter put it, "are leading America's war on terror right here on the ground." But this struggle for autonomy is nothing fundamentally new for the Syrian Kurds. Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent formation of the Syrian state, Syria's Kurds have fought for recognition. This is a battle not only for national self-determination, but also, ultimately, for the most fundamental human rights. Today, Kurds constitute the largest non-Arab minority in Syria, with a population of approximately 1.7 million (10% of the Syrian population). The Kurdish population is predominantly Sunni, making up the dominant Muslim group in Syria. Surprisingly, the country has a relatively good history in terms of religious tolerance. The Kurds speak their own language, Kirmanji, and are grouped in three main pockets in the north of the country: 'Ain' Arab and Afrin along the northern border with Turkey, and Jazira in the northeast sandwiched... ... middle of paper ......the names replace the original names of Kurdish towns. The Syrian constitution, adopted in 1973, makes many references to achieving the goals of the "Arab nation", and although it makes many references to protecting the rights of citizens, it only recognizes as an integral part those who live in the “Arab regions”. of the nation.Kurdish political organization In the face of this repression, the Kurds founded a new political party, the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) in 1957. However, the Syrian government quickly cracked down and the party disintegrated in 1960, since then leaving the Syrian Kurds without any organized local leadership. 2004