When the rebels took Syria, they promised To unite the assorted armed teams of the nation into the United Nationwide Military.
The largest problem for them is in northeastern Syria, an autonomous area ruled by the Kurdish minority within the nation, the place the suspicion of the brand new management is deep.
Lately, rebels and Kurds have been combating one another. However when the rebels who now run Syria, they work to type an alliance and unite the highly effective Kurdish army, led by the Kurdish, within the new nationwide energy.
Interviews with dozens of individuals to the northeast on the finish of March revealed that the Kurdish mistrust of the brand new authorities was rooted partially in the truth that the previous rebels who have been now accountable have been as soon as linked to al -Qaeda. Some Kurds are additionally cautious as a result of the brand new authorities is supported by Turkey, which has been attempting to undermine the Kurdish authorities in Syria for years.
“How can we belief this new authorities in Damascus?” Amina Mahmoud requested, at 31, a Kurdish resident of the northeastern metropolis of Kobani.
Her skepticism is shared by different members of the varied set of ethnic and non secular minorities in Syria, who fear that the brand new authorities is not going to defend, embody or current.
Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF, Agreed on March 10 To combine its army and different establishments, together with its valued oil and fuel deposits, underneath the management of the central authorities by the top of the yr. It was a significant breakthrough for the brand new Syrian President Ahmed al -Shara in his efforts to unite a rustic that’s nonetheless scuffling with JerkS
Within the final month, the Kurds have begun to scale back their army presence within the giant northeastern metropolis of Aleppo, and the 2 sides exchanged prisoners, even when rhetoric on each side turned extra confrontation, emphasizing the lengthy historical past of rigidity.
Initially, the merger deal was applauded to the Northeast Rayon with a combined inhabitants of Arabs and Kurds, which was administered by a regional authorities led by Kurd. The Kurds, which make up about 10 p.c of Syria’s inhabitants, have particularly welcomed a provision within the settlement, offering that they may have the identical rights as the opposite Syrians.
However doubts shortly emerged.
The members of the regional authorities have recognized the settlement as solely step one. Necessary particulars haven’t but been developed, equivalent to whether or not the SDF will be part of the nationwide army as a block or have a steady position in offering the northeast.
“Al-Shara and the brand new authorities wish to management all of Syria,” says Badran Kurdy, a Kurdish political determine who’s concerned in merger negotiations with Mr Al Shara. “And naturally they dream of controlling all our areas. But it surely’s very troublesome.”
Ali Ahmed, a 55-year-old, Kurd from the northeastern metropolis of Hasaka, who taught chemistry, known as Mr Al Shara “Terrorist”. He spoke as his household was having fun with a picnic within the countryside to rejoice the Nountain Competition, the Persian New Yr.
“We all know him,” he stated.
He refers back to the interval from 2013 to 2016, when Mr Al Shara runs the Syrian department of Al Qaeda, the Nusra entrance. Throughout these years NUSRA Entrance Fight Numerous battles in opposition to SDF to manage a number of northeastern cities. Mr Al Shara is now speaking about reconstruction and inclusion.
Whereas Mr. Ahmed appeared by a fog from inexperienced fields to the Turkish border, solely 10 miles, he stated that Mr Al Shara’s shut ties with Turkey solely added to their doubts.
However not all Kurds see the deal as destructive.
A senior member of the Kurdish political management Salih Muslim stated that regardless of the gap between the 2 international locations, he sees it as a historic alternative for the Kurds to obtain recognition from the federal government.
Nevertheless, indefinitely woven into each dialog, they have been questions whether or not the deal would cease Turkey’s assaults in opposition to Syrian Kurds.
Turkey connects Kurdish fighters within the northeastern a part of Syria with Kurdish fighters Inside Turkey, who’ve been combating the federal government for greater than 40 years. In the previous few years, Turkey has launched air assaults in opposition to Syrian Kurdish forces throughout the border and likewise supported the Syrian proxy forces in opposition to the Kurds.
The Turkish army initially maintained some assaults and air strikes even after Mr Al-Chara and SDF chief, Maslum Abdi, signed the merger settlement. However now the assaults stopped.
One of many deadliest Turkish strikes because the settlement struck an agricultural neighborhood exterior the Koburi metropolis of Kobani in March. He killed a household of agricultural staff – a pair and their eight kids, the youngest at 7 months, in response to Firas Casim Lo, the farmer they labored for, and the Syrian democratic forces.
Turkey has denied killing the household and stated in a press release that his operations are “extraordinarily focused at terrorist organizations.” Turkey routinely calls SDF as “terrorists”.
There was no indication that anybody concerned within the Kurdish energy was on the household’s house when he was hit.
The funeral for the household attracted greater than a thousand Kurds who lined a highway resulting in a small cemetery in Kobani. Every of the coffins, a photograph of the deceased, glued exterior, was raised on the shoulders of native males and carried to the funeral.
D -Mahmoud, the resident of Kobani’s Koburi, lives in an condominium overlooking the cemetery and watched with tears in her eyes.
“Why does Erdogan do that to us? What have we completed?” She stated, citing Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Shortly after Kobani’s influence, Turkey largely stopped its assaults on SDF, in addition to his Syrian proxy.
Some Christians who observe their religion brazenly within the northeast sounded worry of any settlement that will enable Mr Al Shara’s army forces to unfold there.
Their fears have been intensified final month by violence, aimed primarily at one other Syrian minority, alavites, in two northwestern provinces alongside the Mediterranean coast. Violence started when the loyalists of the overthrown dictator Bashar al -Assad attacked the forces of the brand new authorities.
Troopers reacted but in addition hundreds of different fighters, together with overseas fighters and armed teams nominally associated to the brand new authorities. Round 1600 people were killedMost of them civilians from the minority of Alavit, to which the Assad household belongs.
Alice Mardros, 50-year-old, Armenian Christian within the northeastern metropolis of Kamishli, stated the Kurds ought to stay guided for safety. “If the Kurds don’t exist right here, we might be beheaded,” she stated after attending the Sunday liturgy within the Armenian Orthodox Church.
The US has been giving for years military, The monetary and political help of the SDF after contemplating it as the primary power most able to defeating the Islamic State, the terrorist group that took over a lot of the Syrian territory throughout the Civil Conflict. US troops have maintained a small presence in northeastern Syria for years, however have begun to withdraw them this month.
After years of wrestling, SDF was capable of abandon the whole territory captured by the Islamic State.
Some Arab residents of the northeast have stated they’re happy with the deal as a result of it is going to carry SDF underneath the management of the central authorities, which they contemplate as a obligatory test of the Kurdish authorities. Nevertheless, the Arabs, that are nearly all of ethnic group in Syria, have been divided by the position of the position they needed, led by Kurdish forces sooner or later.
Sheikh Hassan al -Muslat al -Milhim, an Arab Syrian from Hasaka, stated he was indignant concerning the energy of SDF in a area that has a big Arab inhabitants. US help for energy has worsened issues, in response to him, rising its energy.
“We Arabs don’t wish to have Individuals right here to this point,” stated Mr Al-Milhim. He stated he evaluated Mr Al Shara’s strategy when he led the Nusra entrance and was energetic within the northeast.
“They revered us, they helped us,” stated Mr. Al-Milhim. “They have been Islamist however not radical.”
However his view isn’t shared by all Arab Syrians.
MAN ALDEN, a tribal chief of a number of Arab villages of Bedouin close to the Turkish border, has heat relations with close by Kurdish villages.
He welcomed the settlement however stated he didn’t belief the brand new central authorities in Damascus to protect the prisons and northeast camps that possess Thousands of Islamic State fighters and about 40,000 members of the family.
This temper is voiced by safety employees in neighboring Iraq and Europe.
