The Syrian government under President Ahmad al Sharaa has moved to reassert control over Kurdish-held territories in the country’s north and northeast. Kurds facing pressure both from Damascus and from their former Arab allies against ISIS were pushed out of Aleppo and Raqqa.

The Syrian government subsequently took control of oil and gas fields in Deir ez Zor province and dams along the Euphrates River. This infrastructure had sustained Kurdish autonomy. Kurdish forces then retreated to Rojava, the predominantly Kurdish region in Syria’s northeast. A phone call from President Donald Trump to al Sharaa reportedly then halted the Syrian advance.

From Damascus’s perspective, these moves restore legitimate state authority. After years of fragmentation, civil war, and devastation, the new government views territorial integrity as essential to rebuilding a functional state. But the Kurdish question greatly complicates this effort.

Syria’s Kurdish population, numbering approximately 2 to 3 million people, represents roughly........

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