Kurds’ dream of self-rule under threat as Turkish-backed forces sweep across Syria

Islamist rebels and armed groups backed by Ankara swept across Syria this past week, seizing Aleppo and putting President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers to flight. Having achieved a hard-won autonomy in the turmoil of the Syrian Civil War, the country’s Kurds now find themselves once again cornered between the Damascus regime, Islamist insurgents and Turkish-backed troops eager to put an end to Kurdish self-rule.