Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has become something of a puzzle. His words increasingly appear at odds with his actions.

For example​, he repeatedly emphasizes that his overriding aim is to unify the nation while recognizing the basic rights of its minorities. Yet here he is in deadly conflict with both the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the administrative body of Rojava, the Kurds’ semi-autonomous region in the north-east.

Sharaa probably regards the offensive as consistent with his unification agenda: he is seeking to bring Kurdish-controlled areas fully under state authority.  But since the campaign marginalizes Kurdish political representation, undermines local self-administration, and results in collective harm to Kurdish civilians, it breaches his commitment to protecting minority rights.

In December 2024, with a militant Sunni Islamist career behind him, Sharaa emerged at the head of a professional fighting force to overthrow the dictatorship of Shia-aligned Bashar al-Assad.  Since then he has consistently declared that his aim is to ​construct a ​Syria that unites its disparate elements into a unified​ democratic state.  He has been just as clear in insisting that the future Syria will be rooted in SunniIslamic moral and legal principles. He clearly does not believe his twin aspirations are mutually incompatible​, though they may be. Where is an Islamic state that is truly democratic?  

He may be looking as a model toward Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, which retains a few democratic elements in its constitution.  ​In fact it is Erdogan who is eyeing Syria as a future sphere of influence – and ​Turkey already........

© Eurasia Review