Beirut Syria's Kurds, who have long complained of discrimination under President Bashar Al Assad, would seem a natural fit to join the revolt against his rule. Instead, they are growing increasingly distrustful of an opposition they see as no more likely to grant them their rights.
Kurdish parties angrily pulled out of a recent conference aimed at unifying the opposition ranks after participants ignored their demands for more rights and recognition in a post-Al Assad Syria.
A few days after the withdrawal, while the rest of the country was protesting against Al Assad, Kurds in their main cities of Qamishli and Hasakeh protested against the predominantly Sunni Arab opposition, demanding it back a system that would give them greater say over their own affairs.
"We want federalism," some protesters shouted, carrying red, white and green Kurdish flags.
Tens of thousands of Kurds have been joining in weekly protests against Al Assad's regime. But suspicion of the opposition has kept many of Syria's estimated 2.5 million Kurds — more than 10 per cent of the population — sitting on the fence amid the country's turmoil.
As a result, they effectively join Christians, Alawites and other key minorities whose fear for the future if Al Assad's secular regime collapses has kept them from joining the uprising in force.
Both the Damascus government and the opposition have courted the Kurds but neither have been willing to make full concessions.
The Kurds are also hampered by their own divisions among multiple parties and factions, one of which is accused of openly siding with Al Assad's regime.
"The Kurds are being used as political pawns in the battle between Al Assad's regime and opposition forces," said Fares Tammo, whose father, Mesha'al Tammo, one of the most vocal and charismatic Kurdish opposition figures, was assassinated in October by gunmen who burst into his apartment in northern Syria.
The Kurds' hesitation also underlines a major problem for the opposition: its overwhelmingly Sunni Arab nature and the perception that it is dominated by Islamic hard-liners who will discriminate against minorities if given a chance at power.
Omar Hossino, a Washington-based Syrian-American researcher, said it is key to the uprising's success for the main opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, to integrate the Kurds.
"This, in turn, could not only reassure other minority groups fearful of Arab Sunni Islamist majoritarianism, but would also guarantee a more pluralist regime in the post-Al Assad period," said Hossino.
Still, many in the opposition react to Kurdish demands much like the Al Assad regime always has.
They see the demands as a call to split the country, particularly Kurds' hope for a federal system that would give them self-rule similar to northern Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The SNC's chief further angered Kurds with an interview published on Monday in which he told Kurds not to cling to the "useless illusion" of federalism.
