Abdi and others point out that the Kurds played an important role in defeating the Islamic State group as it rampaged across Syria and neighboring Iraq for years during Syria’s civil war.
Shortly after the uprising against the Assad government began in 2011, the Kurds filled the vacuum created by the withdrawal of government forces from wide areas of Syria's northeast.
The conflict has major implications for Syria’s future as its new government, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham former Islamist rebel group, tries to consolidate control and begin rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war.
There is no way we will abandon them, even over our bodies and the bodies of our children,” said Amira Ali, a Kurdish woman from the northeastern city of Hassakeh whose husband is a member of the local police force known as, “Asayish," the Kurdish term for security.
But that depends on Syria’s new leaders, and the outcome of an ongoing conflict between the Kurds and Turkish-backed rebels that’s been overshadowed by the dramatic shift from Assad rule.
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