They are demanding land for their own state, which was denied them by the major powers earlier in this century during the breakup of the old Ottoman empire. It remains a volatile tinderbox. The Kurds also are central to the availability of water in the Middle East. For 14 years, Assad used the Kurdish leader's terrorism as a lever against Turkey in the same way he used Hezbollah as a lever against Israel. Assad caved in and expelled Ocalan.
Turkey now has control over the water that Syria so desperately needs.
The 25 million Kurds, spread over Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Armenia, are the world's most numerous stateless people. Half live in Turkey, where Kurdish nationalism is energized as never before with Ocalan's capture and coming trial. The major challenge for Turkey internally is that there could be a fusing of Kurdish nationalism and Muslim fundamentalism against Turkey into an anti-military alliance. As the states in the Mideast become weaker, the stateless Kurds become comparatively more important. This is quite true of Iraq, where a weak Iraq could be dismembered into Kurdish and Arab parts.