The abrupt collapse of the Assad regime has left Syrian Kurds in a fraught position. They face the threat of attack from the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel groups that now control significant territory across the country, and from the armed forces of Turkey itself. Moreover, the Syrian Kurds’ erstwhile fair-weather ally of the Assad regime is now defunct, and another ally – the US troop deployment in northeastern Syria – may not be on the regional chessboard for much longer.

A setback looms for the Syrian Kurds’ long struggle for autonomy. Yet the geopolitics of the region remain in flux and the future territorial integrity of Syria is anything but assured. This backgrounder will assess what the fall of Assad means for Kurdish movements in Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.