The SDF emerged from the Syrian civil war as a powerful militant force and, at its height, controlled roughly a third of Syria’s territory under a parallel political system known as the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), including the Kurdish region of Rojava.
The DAANES has long defined itself as a democratic confederalist project operating in direct opposition to both the former Ba’athist state and Syria’s current Sunni Islamist rulers. During the war against the Islamic State, it also drew large numbers of left-wing and anarchist foreign fighters to its ranks.
At its peak, the administration governed all territory east of the Euphrates River, encompassing most of Syria’s oil fields and two major dams. Since the fall of the Assad regime just over a year ago, the new government in Damascus has pushed to fold the SDF into the Syrian Ministry of Defense and dismantle the DAANES in favor of centralized rule. Before talks collapsed, al-Sharaa circulated a decree pledging protection for Kurdish civil rights in a future Syria, though it proposed no material changes to the constitution.
Several former SDF fighters who spoke with Drop Site described themselves as committed to fighting against attempts by Damascus to reintegrate them and expressed suspicion and hostility towards the country’s new rulers, particularly in the wake of bitter fighting between Damascus and Kurdish groups in Aleppo earlier this month and previous massacres targeting Druze and Alawite minorities in the country.
“The current Syrian interim government has through its actions proven its murderous mentality,” said Serafin, a former SDF fighter based in Hasakeh, who declined to give his full name for security reasons. “If a total war for survival were to break out on this land we live on tomorrow, whether we like it or not, we would have to take up arms again to defend our people and our land.”
👉 Read Drop Site’s full report on the conflict linked below.
https://bird.makeup/users/chrisvanhollen/statuses/2013769562550935938
I just got off the phone with General Mazloum, head of the SDF.
The U.S. must demand the Syrian govt immediately comply with the ceasefire.
The SDF has been our chief partner in the fight against ISIS & we must ensure they're treated fairly in the ongoing integration process.
Full statement below:
