Syrian Kurds announce completion of civil, military integration with Damascus

The integration of the Kurdish administration within Syria's state institutions is now complete, Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said on Thursday, 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 recognising 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 Hasakeh. In March, senior Kurdish military official Sipan Hamo was appointed regional assistant defence minister.

As part of the deal's implementation, government forces entered the cities of Hasakeh and Qamishli, and Damascus took over the management of Qamishli airport and key oil fields.

US troops also transferred more than 5,700 Islamic State group detainees in previously Kurdish-controlled camps to neighbouring Iraq.

Washington was the SDF's key backer in its fight against IS, but dropped its support, favouring the US-friendly authorities that took over after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

Abdi did not detail how 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 Islamic State group in Kobane in the north.

The Kurds liberated their town after four months of bitter fighting, and 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, Raqa 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 practising 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 ISIS over and over, that has been admired by many, sadly comes to an end."

str-mam-/lar-nad/gv