As SDF disband in Syria, Kurds ponder how to secure their rights
As the Kurdish forces dissolve, experts express concern if their rights will be won through democratic means.
Erbil, Iraq – The merger of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the government forces last month has sparked a debate among many Kurds in Syria as well as in neighbouring Iraq and Turkiye about the future of their rights.
Though Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has promised constitutional protection for Kurdish language and political rights, analysts question if the decision to drop the “armed struggle” will imperil the struggle to secure Kurdish rights and identity.
“We want this day to be the beginning of a true transition from the battlefields to the fields of construction, and from the era of weapons to the era of peace,” SDF leader Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) said from the presidential palace in Damascus late last month.
The Kurds are an ethnic group of people Indigenous to the Mesopotamian plains and nearby highlands, which today stretch across southeastern Turkiye, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and southwestern Armenia. The Kurdish population is concentrated in these areas, where the Kurdish groups have aspired to establish an independent Kurdish state.