Since the outbreak of conflict in 2011 in Syria, its parties splintered into a large web of internal and external actors. The Kurds and the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria (AANES) have played a key role throughout the conflict. Much change awaits Syria following the coup d’état and issues connected to the Kurds persist; what is the Kurdish position and what challenges face them?

Kurdish position

The AANES administration held that a political – not military – solution, in line with UNSC Resolution 2254, is the only way forward and that this political solution should be based on democracy, societal pluralism, equality of the sexes and decentralised constitutional institutions. It viewed the conflict as a structural one and deemed it impossible for Syria to be governed as a nation-state, considering the ethnic, linguistic and religious differences of various groups within Syria, with an imposed central government. The administration’s proposed roadmap for political transition consisted of two parts:

Main first preliminary steps:

Second main steps:

The AANES maintained no relationship with the Syrian opposition (mainly Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham*, National Coalition, Syrian National Council), on the contrary; they opposed each other. No internal parties to the Syrian conflict supported the idea of Kurdish autonomy for various reasons. Furthermore, the AANES is a secular structure, something that cannot be said about HTS*.

The recent coup d’état in December, as a result of which Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham* and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa displaced Bashar al-Assad as the president of Syria and the Ba’ath Party as the ruling party, has automatically satisfied some of the pre-coup demands of the Kurds, namely the release of detainees and abductees. According to al-Sharaa’s official statements and promises, a number of other Kurdish demands will be fulfilled: inclusive intra-Syrian political dialogue, conditions for the return of displaced peoples and refugees, constitutional referendum etc.

The main issues, however, is the de jure and de facto recognition of the Kurds. The idea of Kurdish autonomy is not a new one (systematic, organised attempts for autonomy have been ongoing since the 1930s) and will certainly not fade away, especially considering the relative autonomy provided by the AANES for a number of years. On February 3, Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, reiterated that “Syria’s future must be secular and decentralised”. He also stressed that the Kurds do not seek independence, rather autonomy, noting that “Syria is not Iraq, and Iraq is not Syria, and northeast Syria is not (Iraqi) Kurdistan”. The SDF........

© New Eastern Outlook