Beirut: The two world powers, the US and Russia, are seemingly very serious about carving out their spheres of influence in autonomous Kurdish districts of northern Syria. Russian diplomats have put their weight behind a powerful Kurdish politician at the Syrian peace talks in Switzerland while the Americans sent a top official to Kurdish-controlled territories in Syria, trespassing on a Russian fiefdom and completely overpassing officialdom in Damascus.

While enjoying the renewed international attention they have been getting, Syrian Kurds have been inching towards Moscow in recent weeks, feeling abandoned by the US due to its strong ties with Nato ally Turkey, which is opposed to the main Syrian-Kurdish party Democratic Union Party (PYD).

As the world seemed focused on the Syrian tug-of-war in Geneva, high level statesmanship was being carried by American and Russian diplomats, all aimed at seducing the Kurds of Syria. Last weekend US presidential envoy Brett McGurk arrived in the small town of Kobani (Ain Al Arab) in northern Syria, just south of the border with Turkey, where he met with a wide assortment of Kurdish officials and fighters.

McGurk spent two days in the war-torn city that exactly one year ago had repelled a major offensive by Daesh, using arms and ammunition from the United States. He is the first US official to publicly visit Syria since the official withdrawal of Ambassador Robert Ford in 2012. Aside from chatting with fighters and evaluating battle updates against Daesh, McGurk was seemingly carving out America’s share of the so-called Syrian Kurdistan, and finding out exactly what the Russians were doing in other parts of the three Kurdish autonomous districts of Syria. The Americans seem to have succeeded in making strong alliances with powerful Kurdish militias.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syria advisors realise that despite years of cooperation between Syrian Kurds and the United States, the relationship is nowhere as warm as it used to be — thanks to Turkey. Previously the Kurds were seen as key partners in the war on terror, eligible for US and intelligence sharing on Daesh activities in the Syrian north. More recently the Americans have been keeping a distance — at least in public — so as not to upset Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who writes off Kurdish heavyweights either as allies, agents or fans of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the US and the EU consider a “terrorist organisation”. Although they realise that they are being pawned by both powers, Syrian Kurds are investing in this American-Russian competition, trying to manipulate it to serve their own national interests.

When the world began planning for the current Syria talks in Geneva, the Kurds were not invited because of Turkey’s objections — driving many of them directly into the arms of Putin. They warmly embraced Russian officers who landed in Kurdish cities and towns last October, seeking to recruit them in the fight against Daesh.

Kurdish militias proudly point to the fact that 6,000 Daesh terrorists were buried beneath the debris of Kobani in early 2015. They also insist that they are the only truly secular militia in the Syrian battlefield. The Russians offered what the Americans have refused to in recent years: money, arms, attention, respect — and a snub to Turkey, which was music to the ears of Syrian Kurds.

Russian servicemen have already landed in the north-eastern city Qamishli, with the objective of building a Russian military base just south of the Turkish border. “We would love to see such a base near us,” said Komai, a resident of Qamishly speaking to Gulf News. “...It makes us feel secure in our towns and villages.” Simultaneously, the Americans are planning to set up their own military base in Rmelan in the Al Hassakeh governorate, 70km east of Qamishli, taking the Russian-US competition on Kurdish land to totally new levels.

Elsewhere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was vying for Kurdish hearts and minds by lobbying for the inclusion of Saleh Al Muslim, a powerful Kurdish party leader whose son had died fighting Daesh in Kobani, in the Syrian opposition delegation in Geneva. The Saudis and Americans curtly refused so as not to provoke Turkey, prompting Al Muslim to walk away from the negotiating table despite arriving in Switzerland. Moscow assured him that he would be onboard in the next stage of intra-Syrian talks. Back home, young Kurds could not hold back their smiles at the amount of attention Al Muslim was getting in the international media — thanks to Russian diplomacy. His attendance or absence was about to bring down the entire UN-mandated negotiations. Trying to meet Russian statesmanship on Syrian Kurds, the US sent McGurk to Kobani and Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken got on the telephone with Al Muslim, giving him “political guarantees” that the Americans were firmly behind Kurdish representation in the Syrian talks — just like the Russians did.