The Syrian presidency on Monday announced an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the institutions of the autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast into the national government.
The new authorities under Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa have sought to disband armed groups and establish government control over the entirety of the nation since ousting long-time president Bashar al-Assad in December last year after more than 13 years of civil war.
The new accord, which is expected to be implemented by the end of the year, comes after days of violence in the heartland of Syria’s Alawite minority that has posed the most serious threat yet to the nation’s stability since al-Assad’s fall.
Photo: SANA via Reuters
The presidency on Monday published a statement signed by both parties laying out the agreement on “the integration of all the civilian and military institutions of the northeast of Syria within the administration of the Syrian state, including border posts, the airport, and the oil and gas fields.”
Media released a photograph of al-Sharaa shaking hands with SDF leader Mazloum Abdi following the signing of the agreement.
The statement said “the Kurdish community is an essential component of the Syrian state,” which “guarantees its right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights.”
It also rejected “calls for division, hate speech and attempts to sow discord” between different segments of Syrian society.
Abdi yesterday said that the accord was a “real opportunity to build a new Syria.”
“We are committed to building a better future that guarantees the rights of all Syrians and fulfills their aspirations for peace and dignity,” the SDF leader wrote on social media.
The SDF serves as the de facto army of the autonomous Kurdish administration that controls large swathes of northern and eastern Syria, including most of the nation’s oil and gas fields, which might prove a crucial resource for the new authorities as they seek to rebuild the nation.
The authorities on Monday announced the end of an operation against loyalists of al-Assad that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said had killed at least 1,068 civilians, most of them members of the Alawite minority who were executed by the security forces or allied groups.
The violence in the coastal heartland of the Alawite community, to which al-Assad belongs, broke out last week after gunmen loyal to the deposed president attacked Syria’s new security forces.
The fighting has also killed 231 security personnel and 250 pro-al-Assad fighters, the Britain-based observatory said.
Marginalized and repressed during decades of al-Assad family rule, the Kurds were deprived of the right to speak their language and celebrate their holidays and, in many cases, of Syrian nationality.
The SDF took advantage of the withdrawal of government forces during the civil war which broke out in 2011 to establish de facto autonomy in the north and northeast.
The SDF played a key role in the fight against the Islamic State group, which was defeated in its last territorial stronghold in 2019.
Since al-Assad’s overthrow, the Kurds have shown a degree of willingness to engage with the new authorities, but they were excluded from a national dialogue conference over their refusal to disarm.
The agreement comes nearly two weeks after a historic call by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Ocalan for the militant group to lay down its weapons and disband.
The SDF maintains it is independent from the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish government.
The Turkish government has designated the PKK a terrorist organization, as have the US and the EU.
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