As the situation in the Middle East sharply deteriorates in the face of a very likely clash between Israel and Iran, many military analysts have recalled that the events of recent decades have led to the emergence of essentially two "trans-border geopolitical corridors".

The first, about which Caucasus Plus has already written, is the corridor organised by Iran with the help of the IRGC through the predominantly Shi'ite areas of Iraq and Syria, controlled by the Assad regime, to southern Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast, controlled by the pro-Iranian organisation Hezbollah. There is, however, another corridor, in many ways "intertwined" with the first, which also passes through the same areas of Syria and Iraq.

This is the so-called "David's corridor", which connects Israel with Iraq through Syria. And the main forces ensuring the functioning of this corridor are Kurdish extremist and terrorist organisations linked to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and the so-called "People's Self-Defence Units" Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG. These formations, especially the YPG, are openly supported not only by the US (which has its bases in the Kurdish-controlled zone in Syria) but also by Israel. In addition to the Kurds, the YPG is being fought by a real "left international" of fighters and mercenaries from all over the world, mainly from Western countries.

So far, this corridor in eastern Syria has been partially "cut" by the Assad regime's control of part of the border with Iraq (i.e. the Iranian IRGC). But since this area is deserted and there are no particularly fortified areas, it is very easy to "cut" it in the other direction by actually disengaging the IRGC forces in Syria and Iraq, and vice versa by organising direct communication between Kurdish units in northern Iraq and Syria and Israel.

To date, pro-American and pro-Israeli Kurdish formations and the IRGC have "divided among themselves" the areas that were controlled by ISIS at the height of the Syrian civil war. And this "ISIL legacy", largely devastated by the war, could very easily be "redivided".

To understand how Kurdish extremists became "allies" of the US and Israel, and how the Kurds, a people who until recently were mostly "Muslim to the core", came to embrace an openly leftist and godless ideology hostile not only to the norms of Islam but also to normal traditional society, it is advisable to delve into history.

As we know, during the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds were almost the most loyal subjects of the Ottoman Empire. If the British were able to encourage some of the Arabs to rebel against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, the same did not happen to the Kurds, with a few exceptions. Although the British, French and Russians actively sought to win over the sheikhs of certain Kurdish tribes.

The fact that the Dashnaks claimed the area of Kurdish settlement as their future "Great Armenia" and unleashed bloody terror against the peaceful Muslim population, especially the Kurds, with the beginning of the First World War, also had an effect. The Kurds were well aware of the prospect of being annihilated or expelled by the Dashnak terrorists, so most of them fought selflessly for the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, many Kurds living in the territory of the Qajar power (Persia) formed self-defence units during the First World War, when this territory was occupied by the Russian army (which led to the "extension" of the Caucasian front), and actually fought on the side of Turkey against the occupiers.

History has also shown that the best way for the Kurds to live is to live together with the Turkish people and in a common state with the Turks. This became particularly clear during the so-called "Anfal", the genocide of the Kurds organised by the Iraqi authorities under the leadership of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, which was somehow "ignored" by the world community.

But already during the First World War, the Western countries started to develop and launch the "Kurdish project". According to the secret Sykes-Picot agreement of 16 May 1916 between the governments of Great Britain, France and the Russian Empire, the zone of Kurdish settlement in the Ottoman Empire was "provisionally" divided between these powers as a result of the war. The revolution in Russia in 1917 and Russia's withdrawal from the war led to a revision of the partition, and the Treaty of Sèvres not only provided for the creation of the so-called "Wilsonian Armenia" (which included significant areas inhabited by Kurds), but also, for the first time, for the project of an "independent" Kurdistan.

The struggle of the Turkish people under the leadership of Kemal Atatürk, which was fully supported by the majority of Kurds, thwarted these plans for the actual destruction of Turkish statehood. Nevertheless, a significant part of the Kurdish settlements was artificially separated from Turkey and became part of what was then British Iraq and French Syria.

France's "appetite" was artificially reduced. Although France claimed the Mosul Vilayet, which included most of present-day Iraqi Kurdistan, under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the entire Mosul Vilayet came under British control at the end of the First World War, and the British subsequently handed over the state of Iraq they had created in their zone of occupation.

Turkey rightly believed that the British were illegally occupying the Mosul Vilayet, as the terms of the 1918 Mudros Armistice did not apply to it. The matter was eventually referred to the League of Nations. On 16 December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations decided to leave the Vilayet of Mosul to Iraq. But during this period, while the question of the ownership of the Mosul Vilayet was still unresolved, the Kurds revolted against the British occupiers. The uprising was crushed, but the beginnings of the Kurdish movement were laid, and later it was the Iraqi Kurds who repeatedly rebelled against the authorities in Baghdad.

The next stage in the formation of the demand for "Kurdish statehood" was the period of occupation of northern Iran by the USSR during the Second World War. The Soviet special services targeted the Kurdish national movement not only in the area of Kurdish settlement in Iran, but also among the Iraqi Kurds. At that time, at the behest of the Soviet security services, a left-communist and left-wing ideology, far removed from the traditional Muslim faith of the majority of Kurds, began to spread among the Kurds.

Interestingly, the Soviet intelligence services' fascination with the "Kurdish project" coincided with the involvement of the same intelligence services in the creation of the state of Israel, which eventually emerged in 1947-1948 with the support of the USSR. In essence, as in the case of Israel, the West "thwarted" the Soviet project by using and reusing Soviet agents.

But the USSR's failure with the Kurds was not as "high profile" as with Israel. Moreover, in the case of the Kurdish project, the West not only decided not to abandon its "left-communist" component but, on the contrary, decided to strengthen it. Although the attempts of the USSR to create a Kurdish Mekhabad Republic on the territory of Iran together with the "pro-Soviet" South Azerbaijan failed, the "cadres of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination" were prepared by this movement and later they played a big role in the formation of the Kurdish project as a "left movement".

With time, the Kurdish movement has developed "further to the left". And this is not only about Kurdish terrorism of a clearly "leftist" type. Kurdish extremism also unexpectedly found support from left-wing globalists, who began to promote among the Kurds, through Kurdish separatist and terrorist organisations, attitudes to "feminism", "protection of LGBT rights", etc. that are completely atypical neither for this nation nor for the Stalinist USSR.

This left-liberal orientation of the Kurdish movement helps to use the Kurds to destroy traditional and "pseudo-traditional" states. For example, it is no secret that last year's protests in Iran started in Iranian Kurdistan and the reason for them was the death of a "feminist" girl at the hands of the "vice police" who demanded that women observe the "dress code" - the compulsory wearing of the headscarf.

As for Iraqi Kurdistan, the struggle of the Kurds against the authorities in Baghdad has been going on since the Second World War. Eventually, the authorities in Baghdad agreed to the establishment of a Kurdish national autonomy, and after years of fighting, an agreement was reached between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government in March 1970. However, the agreement was not implemented and in 1974 Iraqi Kurdistan plunged into a new bloody conflict between the Kurds and the Arabs of the Iraqi government.

The worst for the Kurds of Iraq came in the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein's regime implemented the Anfal plan for the de facto ethnic "cleansing" of the Kurds. It was the real genocide of the Kurdish people, during which, according to some estimates, up to 500,000 Kurds were killed. The punitive actions of Saddam Hussein's regime against the Kurds continued until he was overthrown by the American intervention in 2003. This largely explains why the Kurds ended up as "loyal allies" of the USA and Israel, politically linked to the USA. The same "pro-American" sentiments are widespread among the Syrian Kurds, who formed "pro-American" enclaves during the Syrian civil war and are now part of the emerging so-called "David's Corridor".

According to many analysts, this corridor will also be used against Turkey and the recent events in Palestine can be seen from this point of view. The US wants to create both an economic corridor under its control and a security corridor.

It should be recalled that "David's Corridor" is the historical name of the road leading to the "Promised Land" ("Greater Israel"). The transfer of Jerusalem, home to three religions, to the Israeli monopoly is seen as a step towards the realisation of the "Greater Israel" project. As is the construction of the so-called "Third Temple" in Jerusalem. Recent events show that Israel intends to realise this plan step by step. Obviously, it includes a harsh "cleansing" of the Gaza Strip, the occasion for which was the Hamas attack of 7 October, which was "strangely missed" by Israel's intelligence services.

Israel is now considering extending its operation in Palestine to Syria. The aim would be to neutralise Iranian proxies stationed in the areas between the Golan Heights, the At-Tanf base and Deir ez-Zor. Iran's attempt to defend its "gains" in the region will lead to the almost inevitable involvement of the US in the war, with the predictable result that Iran will definitely not be able to confront both Israel and the US. Moreover, through this corridor, the USA and Israel will gain "direct access" to the Kurdish settlement zone in Iran itself, which could actually "split" this country, especially given the separatism of the Iranian Kurds and the fact that during the recent protests in Iran, Iranian Kurdistan was almost their main "epicentre".

A "Corridor of David" could ensure the main US goal for the region - Israel's unconditional and unquestioned security, "treaty or no treaty". A separate Kurdish satellite state of both the US and Israel could also be created, with the simultaneous aim of reducing Turkey's influence in the Middle East.

George Mazniashvili