twitter @CTO1ChipNagel @JoostHiltermann Turkey Syrian manifestation of the Kurdistan Workers central government second warning signal faint hope Kurdish national objectives years of self-rule secular YPG northeast Syria Kurdish statehood Syrian government forces Trump’s severe defectsIraqi Kurds good terms majority-Kurdish district of Afrin resurgent Assad regime Kurdish north President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan control of northern Syria Washington’s backing international northern Syria worst-case scenario wreckage of the Ottoman empire federal region U.S. forces Turkish troops northern Iraq YPG Iraqi Kurds warning signs Bashar al-Assad Turkish forces Kurds’ DNA greater returns Syria’s Kurds wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq Syrian Kurds useful ally Kurdish aspirations fighters of the People successes Western states Global Masoud Barzani autonomous Kurdish region president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region Assad government’s stubborn refusal states Islamic State Powerful allies theatlantic.com