Thread by @SabCharlie

To celebrate 10 years of the Rojava Revolution, here's a handy guide to who all these groups are, what their acronyms mean, and how they're related. Dedicated to every journalist who's ever had to work out if the YPG are a government or a militia. #10YearsRojava

I've also written a thread today about separatism and why we don't want to do it:

First, the name of the non-state entity is the Autonomous Administration of North & East Syria (AANES). Rojava is the area of historic Kurdish settlement. Its borders are disputed, but are inside the claimed territory of the Autonomous Administration.
Yellow- Rojava, Green- AANES

The local revolution started in Rojava, primarily among Kurdish and Assyrian communities. It then spread to the other areas and the people living there, and joined forces with socialist elements in the wider Syrian revolution.

The party who organised most of the revolution is the Democratic Union Party (PYD). They were inspired by Abdullah Öcalan and the PKK, and organised mainly in Kurdish communities before the revolution.

When the PYD took control of their initial territories, they set up local governance structures and invited other parties and civil society organisations to join them. After a series of name changes, this is now the Autonomous Administration.

The armed wings of the PYD are the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Women's Protection Units (YPJ). They're controlled by the PYD and take no direct part in governance.

Initially the YPJ/G were mostly Kurdish, but as the AANES has grown, many non-Kurds joined too. By 2018 over half their members were Arabs.

The YPJ/G allied and worked with a number of other revolutionary groups, and eventually formed an umbrella organisation to contain them all. This is the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF or QSD). This allowed greater coordination while keeping the autonomy of the other groups.

After the liberation of Manbij, several SDF member groups from the Manbij area formed the Manbij Military Council (MMC). They went on to become a model for later reforms. Manbij is general is the model for how the AANES works outside of Rojava.

Meanwhile, the Autonomous Administration had decided to have compulsory military service. For this they formed the Self Defense Forces (HXP). Their role was mostly rear line guarding and other low risk, low demand activities. Members of other militias are exempt from service.

The obvious problem here is that most of the military power was controlled by a party, not the Administration. And that party is very keen on decentralisation and democratisation of military power. So a few years ago, major reforms happened.

The YPJ/G remain militias of the PYD, but are intended as elite and specialist troops made entirely of lifetime cadres.

Local military councils, based on the MMC model, were set up for every region. They are controlled directly by regional councils.

The HXP has been expanded to include short-term voluntary fighters, and is controlled by the top level of the Autonomous Administration.

And local security forces (the police equivalents) have received more arms and training to cover local military needs.

The main exception to all this is Afrin. Being geographically isolated, Afrin YPJ/G forces never joined the SDF. Since the Turkish invasion, they have renamed themselves as the Afrin Liberation Forces (HRE). They are still not an SDF member and have no military councils.

This is just an overview, let me know if you have questions! And remember, Kurdistan will be the graveyard of fascism. Biji Serok Apo!