[Salon] The End of Autonomy: Syrian Government and SDF Reach Historic Integration Deal ArabDigest.org Guest Post

The End of Autonomy: Syrian Government and SDF Reach Historic Integration Deal Summary: President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the SDF have signed a 14-point agreement to integrate Kurdish forces and territory into the Syrian state, effectively ending over a decade of Kurdish autonomy. The deal follows a major government military advance into strategic oil and energy hubs, though it has been overshadowed by deadly clashes in Raqqa and widespread Kurdish outrage over human rights abuses during the transition. We thank Winthrop Rodgers for today’s newsletter. A journalist and analyst who spent several years in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, he focuses on politics, human rights, and economics and is an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. @wrodgers2 On Sunday Syrian President al-Sharaa announced a 14-point agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief, Mazloum Abdi, marking a major blow to Kurdish ambitions for autonomy and effectively ending more than a decade of de facto self-rule in northern and eastern Syria. The deal, which mandates the integration of the SDF and Kurdish security forces into the Syrian defence and interior ministries, follows an advance by government troops across Kurdish-held areas of the country's North and East which saw the capture of the strategic city of Tabqa, the Euphrates Dam (a vital hydroelectric facility), and major energy resources including the Al-Omar oil field (Syria's largest), as well as the Tanak, Safyan, and Al-Tharwa fields. The Kurdish administration has agreed to the immediate handover of the Raqqa and Deir Ezzor provinces to the central government. A key component of the deal is that the Damascus government will now take responsibility for Islamic State (IS) prisoners and their families currently held in Kurdish-run camps and jails. However, it also attacked these same prisons before a clean hand-over could be made, with Al-Shaddadi Prison falling out of SDF control on January 19. Despite the agreement, deadly clashes are reported to have continued in Raqqa between the SDF and local fighters loyal to the government. Government forces have brought in reinforcements to “comb” parts of the city. This major political and military shift comes just days after Syria’s transitional government captured the Kurdish-controlled neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafieh in northern Aleppo city in a four-day military operation. That assault sparked a wave of outrage from Kurds around the world, with videos of human rights abuses against civilians and fighters circulating on social media. Importantly, the operation against Aleppo and the subsequent offensive against other SDF-controlled territories have reinforced the fissures that remain deeply embedded in the new Syrian state. The challenge of creating a stable country where the rights of minorities are respected and the legacy of Ba’athist chauvinism is left behind likely became much more difficult as a result. The end of Kurdish control in the east may yield a short-term victory for Damascus but will likely cause friction in the future. While the dust is still settling in place like Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, the example of Shiekh Maqsud is instructive. The Kurdish-majority enclave in northern Aleppo had remained under local control throughout the civil war. However, it came under increasing pressure from the new government over the past year, even as Damascus engaged in negotiations with the SDF For some analysts, this suggests that planning for the eventual assault on the neighborhoods had been in motion for some time. Syrian government troops tear down a Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) (Kurdish women forces) statue in the northeast of Syria as the autonomous Kurdish-led region, which has existed for a decade, comes to an end According to media reports, the two sides were in active discussions days before the government launched its ground assault. The talks were suddenly terminated on January 4, however, with sources variously pointing the finger at the influence of Turkey and the US. The attacks on Sheikh Maqsud began on January 6 and lasted for four days, by which time the government forces had taken full control of the neighborhood. Approximately 155,000 people were displaced during the fighting and at least 21 civilians were killed during the operation, though the full death toll is not yet known. Eventually, the local Kurdish forces were forced to leave the city for SDF-controlled areas to the east. The capture of Sheikh Maqsud sparked an intense reaction from Kurds around the world. This was driven largely by allegations of human rights violations against civilians and captured fighters. Videos on social media showed government-affiliated forces humiliating huddled groups of civilians and young men being marched off to an uncertain fate. Footage of artillery damage to the Khalid Fajr Hospital was widely published by media outlets in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. A video of a dead female fighter being thrown off of a building proved particularly galvanizing. It spawned a meme with her represented as an angel, with various iterations appearing widely across Kurdish social media. So far, there is no evidence of the type of massacres that government-affiliated fighters committed last year in coastal provinces or Suweda. However, Kurdish activists have circulated a list of several hundred civilians that allegedly went missing during the operation. The outrage was not just contained to social media, but voiced in protests across Europe and the Kurdistan Region. ‘Attacking Kurdish citizens is a war crime’, read one sign in London where demonstrators waved Kurdish flags and SDF banners near Downing Street. That outrage is now magnified by the more serious collapse of Kurdish authority across the rest of Syria. This kind of cross-border solidarity is normal for Kurds – as is anger at perceived betrayal by central governments like Damascus and its backers, including those in the West. However, the level of feeling on display in recent days was noteworthy and far above ordinary. Moreover, this outrage extended beyond the street and included prominent Kurdish political leaders. In an official statement on January 8, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said that ‘the targeting of Kurds in an effort to change the demography of the area and create threats to the lives of civilians, raise questions about the authorities in Damascus and the conscience of the international community’. Kurdish anger was exacerbated by a perception that the Syrian government and its Western partners felt that retaking the neighborhood was justified in the interests of Syrian unity and that Syrian Kurds should simply accept this, along with the abuses that occurred during the Sheikh Maqsud operation and the apparent release of ISIS fighters from the prisons that the SDF had guarded for so long. A tweet from US Syria Envoy Ambassador Tom Barrack following a meeting with Syria’s foreign minister on January 10 was instructive. While nodding to the importance of Kurdish rights and the sacrifices of the SDF in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS), he emphasised that the US wants to see an ‘inclusive and responsible integration process — one that respects Syria’s unity, upholds the principle of a single sovereign state, and supports the goal of one legitimate national military’. After the deal was agreed on Sunday, Barrack met with both the Syrian President and the Kurdish leader, calling the agreement a “pivotal inflection point.” The U.S. supports both the new authorities in Damascus and has also historically backed the Kurds. While Sharaa issued a decree granting Kurds official recognition, many Kurds still felt the gesture fell far short of their needs. In the Kurdish stronghold of Qamishli, hundreds of residents protested the deal, chanting in support of defending their “heroes”, the SDF. There is immense work to be done if Syria is serious about turning its back on the attitudes that underpinned the Ba’athist dictatorship of Assad — and, from a Kurdish perspective, that challenge has become much more difficult because of recent events.