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Tal Abyad: Achilles Heel of the Syrian Kurdish Belt
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Fabrice Balanche - The border district of Tal Abyad may well be the Turkish army's main target. The district's Arab-majority population rejects the YPG, the U.S.-backed Kurdish force currently in control of the area. The Arab militias in the YPG-led Syrian Defense Forces are no doubt unwilling to help the Kurds stop the Turkish army and its local proxies. To the contrary, they could use this opportunity to break with the YPG and its unsustainable domination of Arab-majority areas. The district is 70% Arab and 25% Kurdish. The writer is an assistant professor and research director at the University of Lyon 2.