Total embargo!
Unfortunately the KDP does not want an open border with Rojava. On the contrary, its goal is for the new political project there to fail, or to intervene and dismantle the new system’s progressive and revolutionary content. Just because the KDP has a different ideological cast from Rojava does not logically mean it must participate in the all-embracing embargo. In this world there are many open borders between areas with opposing political systems. The inhumane embargo between the KRG and Rojava is comprehensible only when one takes into consideration the pressure exerted by Turkey. For years the KDP has maintained the friendliest political and economic relations with Turkey, its largest trading partner and purchaser of its subsidized petroleum.
What Rojava cantons and the newly proclaimed federal system wish from the KDP is neither financial support nor permission to sell oil and wheat—they have both in abundance—on the world market. Rather, they wish the KDP to open the border for so that food, medicine, medical equipment, machines, and spare parts, can be brought in, as well as items essential for basic care and services, as well as books and such.
Although the Rojava-KRG border crossing at Semalka (Faysh Khabur) has been repeatedly closed since 2012, it has been largely open for some goods. The KDP claims that it was closed for only three months in the spring of 2016, but the reality is something else. Today,only persons and companies from South Kurdistan that closely cooperate with the KDP are allowed to bring goods to Rojava and sell them there. The many traders in Rojava cannot earn anything from the border trade; they are de facto unemployed. Because the KDP imposes high taxes at the border, the goods transported into Rojava are very expensive. Their range is extremely limited—some food, small electronic devices such as cell phones, and clothes, but no medical supplies or materials for the improvement of infrastructure or essentials for basic care and services (such as water and the electricity supply). The number of trucks crossing into Rojava is very limited, often only five per day into an area where up to 4 million people live.
