Tuesday’s announcement that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had dissolved, with its forces merging with the Syrian military, represents a boost for a government seeking to demonstrate that it has sole authority over the country. And yet, analysts have told Al Jazeera, the finer details of military integration remain, indicating that the divisions that have beset Syria over almost 14 years of war, and then in the 20 months since the fall of the al-Assad regime, have not been totally eradicated. The SDF, which emerged in 2015, has been based in the country’s northeast, where much of Syria’s historically marginalised Kurdish population lives.
Despite months of talks, the SDF had been unwilling to give up on the autonomy it had gained during Syria’s war, but on Tuesday the group’s leader Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) said that an “important page” had been turned in the country’s history. Initially, the SDF had held strong reservations over giving up its arms and coming under the command of Syria’s Ministry of Defence. But a government-led offensive into the northeast in January, in addition to good relations between the Syrian government and the United States – the SDF’s main backer – has shifted the balance of power.
Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer on security studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that the SDF’s dissolution “is part of an ongoing trend of the SDF losing its leverage in Syria, simply because the US has signalled that [the SDF] no longer has protected status from the US”. The SDF’s dissolution means that “the largest organised military force outside Damascus’s authority has ended its independent existence, allowing the state to begin the process of restoring a single military command and unified control over the border, airports, and strategic resources”, said Navvar Saban, a researcher in security and military affairs at the Arab Center for Contemporary Syrian Studies. But, Saban added, the process of integration will take more than an announcement in Damascus.
Saban said that SDF military fighters are being incorporated into the Syrian army under the command of the Defence Ministry, while the Asayish – the SDF’s affiliated security forces – and other local security bodies are being integrated into the Ministry of Interior. Civilian institutions and employees are also being transferred to relevant ministries. There is also likely to be some apprehension from Syrian Kurds, with a deadly war still recent in their memories, and some mistrust towards Syria’s government.
The government is led by figures formerly associated with now-disbanded rebel groups, including Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, whose predecessor, al-Nusra Front, was once affiliated with al-Qaeda. Many of the former rebel groups had also fought the SDF, which was accused of cooperating with the al-Assad regime at times. But they also need guarantees concerning the Kurdish language, education, political representation, and local security.” Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has made efforts since assuming power in the wake of al-Assad’s fall to assuage Kurdish concerns, repeatedly pledging constitutional protection for Kurdish language and political rights, but insisting on integration into the wider Syrian state.
There have been particular disagreements over the SDF’s Women Protection Units, also known as the YPJ. Earlier this month, SDF senior official Abdulkarim Omar told Al Jazeera that the YPJ wanted to join the Defence Ministry, but had instead been told by the Syrian government that the army’s existing structure did not include units for women. The government had instead suggested the YPJ be integrated into the Interior Ministry.
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