Rojava is made up of three cantons. Afrin Canton in the West, Kobane Canton in the center, and Cizre Canton in the East. These three cantons are working in cooperation with many local and international players to push back the Islamic State.
Founding of the PYD
After the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party) was banned in Turkey, many Kurds sympathetic to the PKK emigrated to the Syrian region known as Rojava. These Kurds are credited with founding the Kurdish organization in Syria called the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Similar in almost every respect to the PKK including promoting Democratic Confederalism, the PYD considers jailed PKK founder Öcalan as its ideological leader.
“Not only are the Kurds battling the Islamists (in Rojava), but they are also attempting to create a model of democracy that might actually bring stability to a war-torn region.”[1]
The Kurdish Supreme Committee
The Kurdish Supreme Committee (DBK) was established by PYD and the Kurdish National Council (KNC) as the governing body of Rojava in July 2012. The member board consists of an equal number of PYD and KNC members. In November 2013, the PYD announced an interim government divided into three non-contiguous autonomous areas or cantons, Afrin, Jazira and Kobani.
