Syrian Kurds announce completion of civil, military intergration with Damascus

QASMISHLI: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi on Thursday said the integration of the Kurdish administration within Syria's state institutions was complete, marking the end of the Kurds' long-held dream of autonomy. The announcement follows months of negotiations between the two sides after a January agreement that called for the full integration of Kurdish civil and military institutions into the state — a move Washington deemed 'historic.' 'I want to say that the phase of integrating military, security and administrative institutions into national state institutions is complete and finished,' Abdi, who heads the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said at an event in Qamishli in northeastern Syria. 'From now on, we begin a new phase,' he added. 'Our struggle will continue, to cement our people's rights in the constitution.' The January agreement, signed by Abdi and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, followed clashes between Syrian Kurdish fighters and the new authorities' forces that saw the Kurds lose swathes of territory they held in the oil-rich north and northeast. Amid the violence, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa signed on January 16 a decree enshrining the Kurds' national rights and recognizing Kurdish as a national language, an unprecedented step since Syria's independence in 1946. In February, Noureddine Ahmed Eissa, a Kurd from the city of Qamishli, was appointed governor of Hasakah. In March, senior Kurdish military official Sipan Hamo was appointed regional assistant defense minister. As part of the deal's implementation, government forces entered the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli, and Damascus took over the management of Qamishli airport and key oil fields. US troops also transferred more than 5,700 Daesh group detainees in previously Kurdish-controlled camps to neighboring Iraq. Washington was the SDF's key backer in its fight against Daesh, but dropped its support, favoring the US-friendly authorities that took over after the fall of Bashar Assad in 2024. 'Bitter end' Abdi did not mention the mechanism by which the SDF and the Kurdish security forces were integrated into the ranks of the Syrian state, following months of wrangling between the two sides. The SDF was formed in 2015 at the instigation of the United States, impressed by the Kurdish fighters who had defeated the Daesh group in Kobani in the north. Washington at the time sought a reliable partner in the battle against the jihadists, who were defeated territorially in Syria four years later. It amassed around 100,000 fighters, according to Abdi, and was composed of Kurds and Arabs. But Arabs within their ranks defected en masse after Sharaa's army took control of two previously Kurdish-held provinces, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, leaving them with half the strength they had before, according to Syria specialist Fabrice Balanche. Kurds had previously faced repression under successive governments, having been barred from teaching their language, celebrating their holidays or practicing their culture. Twenty percent of Syria's Kurds — who make up about 15 percent of the population — lost their citizenship in 1962 following a controversial census. But even as the new administration in Damascus grants them more rights than their predecessors, integration essentially puts an end to the Kurds' dream of autonomy. 'Dissolving the SDF means a bitter end,' Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based analyst and expert on the Kurds, told AFP. 'A military force that has been very successful, that has defeated Daesh over and over, that has been admired by many, sadly comes to an end.' The end of this highly-trained organized force, which Civiroglu believes could have been an example to follow in the country, 'marks the end of Kurdish strength in Syria.'