Eve Morris-Gray & Abbas Abbas || With the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) expected to announce their official dissolution in the coming period, possibilities for new horizons in Kurdish and democratic politics are being explored in northern Syria.
“There are no major obstacles hindering the implementation of the January 29 agreement,” said Dr. Jihan Said Hassam, the newly appointed director of Qamishlo district, and the first woman in Syria to hold such a position. “As a Kurdish woman, I am proud to be at the forefront in Hasakah Governorate,” she said. “I will do my utmost to live up to the trust our people have placed in me.”
Hassam knows she has a daunting task in front of her. The era of seeking to preserve fierce autonomy and protect oneself from the state – which was the reality faced by North and East Syria since 2012 – has come to a close. “Syria is being rebuilt in many places,” Hassam said. “The Autonomous Administration navigated the period [of the last 14 years] despite limited resources and challenging circumstances. The phase ahead will bring significant changes, impacting not only institutional structures but also the reality on the ground.”
Sihanouk Deepo, a DAANES official, recently acknowledged that significant changes are coming with the ongoing integration process, yet defined them as a “transfer to new political frameworks” rather than simply an end to what the Autonomous Administration represented.
Hasakah governor says institutional merger is 70% complete
“From day one until now, we have successfully completed numerous tasks and files, operating as a unified team across our existing institutions,” Hassam explained. “While the majority of these institutions have already been integrated – as the integration process itself is a core part of our work – there are still a few awaiting the arrival of a delegation from the [Damascus] ministry to finalize their merger.”
The Hasakah Governor, Nourredin Ahmed, has estimated that 70% of the institutional merger has been completed, citing the education, health, electricity, agriculture, internal trade, and culture sectors as examples.
Hassam acknowledged that the pace of integration had been uneven. “Progress sometimes slows – influenced by the regional situation and broader circumstances in Syria.” The Amargi was informed by diplomatic sources that the stages of development within the integration process in Syria are correlated to those occurring within the ongoing peace process north of the border, between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Indeed, the final step of integration – which would culminate in the official dissolution of the SDF and DAANES – was still hinging on a number of key issues that remained unresolved, including the return of internally displaced people (IDPs), property returns, and possibly the process of redrafting the national constitution.
The integration of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) into the Syrian army remains a contentious issue. Syria’s UN ambassador, Ibrahim Olabi, told The Amargi that several individuals formerly within the YPJ “are being integrated into the Ministry of Interior forces,” yet “the issue of Ministry of Defense is still a matter for debate.”
He added that “we have said the role of women is incredibly important,” citing the fact that a women’s police and security training academy was already operating.
Gains within education and language
“The Kurdish-language curriculum, administered by the Autonomous Administration, as well as the certificates for primary and secondary education have been formally recognized [by Damascus],” Hassam said. “We are currently working on the status of the universities in Rojava and other affiliated institutions in the region. The Minister of Higher Education [of the Syrian transitional government] visited to assess the situation in the governorate.”
A solution, she suggested, would be to open a new university for Hasakah Governorate. The Syrian Education Minister also revealed that preparations were underway to develop new study programs in Kurdish in Kurdish-populated areas.
“Official recognition has been granted – and agreements signed – acknowledging the Kurdish, Syriac and Arabic languages within Hasakah Governorate,” Hassam said. The inclusion of Syriac is significant, given that after the Kurdish language gained official recognition under Presidential Decree No. 13 earlier this year, the Syriac community in Hasakah staged numerous protests demanding formal recognition of its language, too. “We view these as highly progressive steps, the impact of which will become increasingly evident on the ground in the future,” she noted.
“We have put our words on paper into real action,” Olabi said, citing applications for Syrian citizenship, Kurds appointed and elected to Parliament, returns of Afrin IDPs, and former SDF commanders integrated into the Ministry of Defense. “Generally, things are going in the right direction. It is a miracle how things are going.”
With regard to the issue of minority representation – or lack of it – Olabi argued that “we don’t see minorities and majorities, we see Syrians and all components. But nevertheless, the President made sure all components were there [in parliament].”
Civilians want to see material benefits from the integration process
“We are working on various projects to address people’s needs and implement the initiatives they desire,” Hassam said, citing education as a top priority. “We are also prioritizing the delivery of municipal services. Much of the infrastructure has aged and can no longer bear the current load after years of use; consequently, we will be modernizing infrastructure systems – including sewage, roads, construction, electricity and water networks. Work is currently underway to establish an alternative electricity line for the city.”
But for most Syrians, a crippling national economic crisis and rising prices of essential services severely impacts daily life. Rapid cuts to state subsidy programs for key items has left the vast majority of households struggling. Mohammed Eyno, a resident of Qamishlo, described life on the ground. “People are complaining about salaries, unemployment, electricity and petrol shortages, poor roads, poor water supply: Kurds, Arabs, everyone, regardless of integration,” he said. “There are so many failures, so many things not being done.” said Mohammed Eyno, a resident of Qamishlo.
The comparison to last year, which already had its own challenges, was stark, Eyno noted. “Under the Autonomous Administration, things were cheaper, fuel was distributed. Some people say, ‘if this is what integration means, it is killing us.’ The situation of the population is not good. Maybe on the media the government is saying ‘we did this and that.’ But we don’t see any progression in the living situation on the ground.”
While the new Syrian currency is being distributed, insufficient quantities of it have reached the northern Kurdish regions. As the deadline for handing in old money looms closer, public anger is rising, as citizens fear they will not have a chance to exchange it. “How can people have trust in the government when they won’t even distribute enough new money here?”
Hassam maintains an optimism despite these glaring problems. “There is a clear difference compared to the former regime; administrators now come from the community and local governance. This means the community will hold greater authority and rights.”
Unsolved files: from IDP returns to new political visions
“Whether you want it or not, some people are not content with the [integration] agreement and wish to subvert it,” said Mariyam Jindo, a Yazidi woman from Afrin. “The agreement should solve many things: military merger, refugee returns – which happened in mass numbers for the people of Afrin – and institutions taking their place inside the state system. I want this agreement to be followed until its completion. If new problems arise, it is society that will suffer.”
Damascus has also stated that there is progress within the process of enabling internally displaced families to return to Sere Kaniye. Up until now, locals have reported serious obstacles preventing their return, chiefly that their properties, seized following Turkey’s 2019 invasion, have still not been handed back to them.
Clarifying the fate of those missing since Damascus’ January offensive on NES was a topic that weighed heavily on the hearts of the Kurdish population in Syria’s north. “There are still over 600 of our people whose fate is unknown,” said Eyno. “The STG has not said where they are, if they were killed, or where they are imprisoned. Over 100 others are confirmed as prisoners. They have not been released. They must be released for this process to continue.” he insisted.
“The future needs to be for our good. Kurds, Arabs, Druze, Alawites, everyone,” he said. “The future of Syria is for Syria’s people. We want to be part of this process. But if the government says ‘it’s ours,’ well that makes things tricky.”
The question of who can be a part of the wider process of shaping the trajectory of the new Syria is a dynamic one. While the transitional phase so far has been marked by the concentration of power in the hands of a tightly controlled executive body around interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the expected dissolution of the SDF and DAANES will also lay the basis for possible new formations and structures representing a new vision both for Syria’s Kurds and for a democratic path forward for the whole country. What these changes will look like, however, and which actors will emerge as determinative forces outside of the STG, remains to be seen.
