The 13-year civil war between Syria’s government and rebel fighters has ended, but the peril is not over for Syria’s Kurdish minority. A number of armed factions are still jostling for control, including the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have allied with the United States to combat the extremist Islamic State, and the Syrian National Army, a militia backed by Turkey, which is hostile to the Kurdish forces. For more than a decade, the Kurdish-led soldiers have been America’s most reliable partner in Syria. However, Turkey has long considered the Kurdish group to be its enemy. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who backs the rebel groups that toppled the Assad regime, appears eager to pursue his own agenda against the Kurdish fighters. A best-case scenario for the Kurds, officials and experts said, might see them receive enough support from the United States to secure the territory they hold in northeast Syria.

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