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New York Times
28-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Kurdish Distrust of Syria's New Government Runs Deep
When rebel forces took over Syria, they pledged to unite the country's disparate armed groups into a unified national army. The biggest challenge for them by far has been in northeastern Syria, an autonomous region run by the country's Kurdish minority where suspicion of the new leadership runs deep. In past years, the rebels and the Kurds fought each other. But with the rebels now governing Syria, they are working to form an alliance and merge the powerful Kurdish-led military into the new national force. Interviews with dozens of people in the northeast in late March revealed that Kurdish distrust of the new government is rooted partly in the fact that the former rebels now in charge were once affiliated with Al Qaeda. Some Kurds are also wary because the new government is backed by Turkey, which has tried for years to undercut Kurdish power in Syria. 'How can we trust this new government in Damascus?' asked Amina Mahmoud, 31, a Kurdish resident of the northeastern town of Kobani. Her skepticism is shared by other members of Syria's diverse range of ethnic and religious minorities, who worry that the new government will not protect, include or represent them. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., agreed on March 10 to integrate its military and other institutions, including its prized oil and gas fields, under the central government's control by year's end. It was a major breakthrough for the new Syrian president, Ahmed al-Shara, in his efforts to unify a country still wrestling with violent turmoil. In the last month, the Kurds began to reduce their military presence in the major northeastern city of Aleppo and the two sides exchanged prisoners even as the rhetoric on both sides has become more confrontational, underscoring the long history of tensions. Initially, the merger deal had been applauded in the northeast — an area with a mixed population of Arabs and Kurds that is administered by a Kurdish-led regional government. The Kurds, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population, particularly welcomed a provision in the accord stipulating that they would have the same rights as other Syrians. But doubts quickly surfaced. Members of the regional government described the agreement as merely a first step. Important details have yet to be worked out, such as whether the S.D.F. will join the national military as a bloc or have a continuing role in securing the northeast. 'Al-Shara and the new government want to control all of Syria,' said Badran Kurdi, a Kurdish political figure who took part in the merger negotiations with Mr. al-Shara. 'And of course they are dreaming about controlling all of our areas. But it's very difficult.' Ali Ahmed, 55, a Kurd from the northeastern city of Hasakah who teaches chemistry, called Mr. al-Shara 'a terrorist.' He spoke as his family enjoyed a picnic in the countryside to celebrate the spring festival of Nowruz, the Persian new year. 'We know him,' he said. He was referring to the period from 2013 to 2016, when Mr. al-Shara led Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front. During those years, the Nusra Front fought a number of battles against the S.D.F. over control of several northeastern towns. Mr. al-Shara now speaks of reconstruction and inclusion. As Mr. Ahmed looked across a haze of greening fields toward the Turkish border, barely 10 miles away, he said that Mr. al-Shara's close ties with Turkey only added to his doubts. But not all Kurds see the deal as a negative. One senior member of the Kurdish political leadership, Salih Muslim, said that despite the distance between the two sides, he sees this as a historic opportunity for Kurds to gain recognition from the government. Inextricably woven into every conversation, however, were questions about whether the deal will stop Turkey's attacks on Syrian Kurds. Turkey links Kurdish fighters in Syria's northeast to the Kurdish militants inside Turkey who have been fighting the government for more than 40 years. For the past several years, Turkey has been launching air attacks on Syrian Kurdish-forces across the border and has also supported Syrian proxy forces against the Kurds. The Turkish military initially kept up some drone attacks and airstrikes even after Mr. al-Shara and the S.D.F. leader, Mazloum Abdi, signed the merger accord. But it has now suspended the attacks. One of the deadliest Turkish strikes since the accord hit a farming hamlet outside the Kurdish-majority town of Kobani in March. It killed a family of farm laborers — a couple and their eight children, the youngest 7 months old, according to Firas Qassim Lo, the farmer they were working for, and the Syrian Democratic Forces. Turkey denied killing the family and said in a statement that its operations 'exclusively target terrorist organizations.' Turkey routinely refers to the S.D.F. as 'terrorists.' There was no indication that anyone connected to the Kurdish-led force was in the family's home when it was struck. A funeral for the family drew more than a thousand Kurds who lined a road leading to a small cemetery in Kobani. Each of the coffins, a photo of the deceased taped to the outside, was hoisted onto the shoulders of local men and carried to the burial ground. Ms. Mahmoud, the Kurdish resident of Kobani, lives in an apartment overlooking the cemetery and watched with tears in her eyes. 'Why does Erdogan do this to us? What have we done?' she said, referring to Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Shortly after the Kobani strike, Turkey largely suspended its attacks on the S.D.F., as did its Syrian proxy forces. Some Christians, who practice their faith openly in the northeast, sounded fearful of any agreement that would allow Mr. al-Shara's military forces to deploy there. Their fears were heightened last month by violence directed primarily at another Syrian minority, the Alawites, in two northwestern provinces along the Mediterranean coast. The violence began when loyalists of the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad attacked the new government's forces. The soldiers responded, but so did thousands of others fighters, including foreign fighters and armed groups nominally linked to the new government. About 1,600 people were killed, most of them civilians from the Alawite minority, which the Assad family belongs to. Alis Marderos, 50, an Armenian Christian in the northeastern town of Qamishli, said that the Kurds needed to remain in charge of security. 'If the Kurds did not exist here, we would have been beheaded,' she said after attending Sunday Mass at the Armenian Orthodox church. For years, the United States has given military, financial and political support to the S.D.F. after deeming it the ground force most capable of defeating the Islamic State, the terrorist group that took over a large swath of Syrian territory during the civil war. U.S. troops have maintained a small presence in northeastern Syria for years but began this month to draw them down. After years of fighting, the S.D.F. managed to wrest back all the territory captured by the Islamic State. Some Arab residents of the northeast said they were pleased with the deal because it would bring the S.D.F. under the control of the central government, which they see as a needed check on Kurdish power. Arabs, who are the majority ethnic group in Syria, were divided, however, on the role they want the Kurdish-led forces to play in the future. Sheikh Hassan al Muslat al-Milhim, an Arab Syrian from Hasakah, said he resented the power of the S.D.F. in a region that has a large Arab population. The American support for the force made things worse, in his view, by augmenting its power. 'We the Arabs, up until this moment, do not like having the Americans here,' said Mr. al-Milhim. He said he had appreciated Mr. al-Shara's approach when he led the Nusra Front and was active in the northeast. 'They respected us, they helped us,' Mr. al-Milhim said. 'They were Islamist, but not radical.' But his view is not shared by all Arab Syrians. Mann Aldaneh, a tribal leader of several Bedouin Arab villages near the Turkish border, has warm relations with nearby Kurdish villages. He welcomed the agreement but said he did not trust the new central government in Damascus to guard prisons and camps in the northeast that hold thousands of Islamic State fighters and some 40,000 of their family members. That sentiment has been echoed by security officials in neighboring Iraq and Europe as well.
New York Times
17-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
U.S. Is Withdrawing Hundreds of Troops From Syria
The United States has started drawing down hundreds of troops from northeastern Syria, a reflection of the shifting security environment in the country since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December, but also a move that carries risks. The military is shuttering three of its eight small operating bases in the country's northeast, reducing troop levels to about 1,400 from 2,000, two senior U.S. officials said. The bases are known as M.S.S. Green Village, M.S.S. Euphrates and a third much smaller facility. After 60 days, the officials said, American commanders will assess whether to make additional cuts. Commanders have recommended keeping at least 500 U.S. troops in Syria, one of the officials said. President Trump, however, has expressed deep skepticism about keeping any U.S. troops in the country. At least for now the reductions that started on Thursday are based on ground commanders' recommendations to close and consolidate bases, and were approved by the Pentagon and its Central Command, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The Islamic State remains a potent danger in Syria, particularly in the northeast where American troops are concentrated. But the demise of Mr. Assad's regime has greatly reduced, at least for now, an array of other threats, including the Iran-backed militias and Russian troops that supported the Syrian government. Another major turning point came last month when the Kurdish-led militia that controls northeastern Syria agreed to merge with the country's new government, a breakthrough for Damascus in its efforts to unify a country still wrestling with violent turmoil. The agreement called for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., to integrate 'all civil and military institutions' into the new Syrian state by the end of the year, including its prized oil and gas fields. Since a rebel coalition headed by Ahmed al-Shara took power in December, the new government has sought to unify the complex web of rebel groups operating across Syria — the most powerful of them being the Kurdish-led forces in the northeast. However, the security situation has remained unstable, and the Kurdish militia has been among the most challenging groups for the government to bring into its fold. For years, the Kurdish-led militia has been the main U.S. partner in the fight in Syria against the Islamic State. It made hard-fought territorial gains during the country's civil war, to the extent that it now administers a de facto state in Syria's northeast. In their reduced numbers, American troops, which include conventional soldiers as well as Special Forces, will continue to provide counterterrorism assistance to the S.D.F. and help operate several detention camps, the two senior U.S. officials said. Between 9,000 and 10,000 Islamic State fighters and about 35,000 of their family members are detained in northeastern Syria. U.S. intelligence officials, presenting their annual worldwide threat assessment last month in Congress, concluded that ISIS would try to exploit the end of the Assad government to free prisoners and to revive its ability to carry out attacks. The escape of prisoners would not only add to the group's numbers, but also provide a propaganda coup. The United States announced late last year that its military had roughly doubled the number of its troops on the ground in Syria, to 2,000, to help deal with a growing threat from the Islamic State and from Iran-backed militias that have attacked American bases. In Syria, according to a Defense Department official who spoke anonymously to discuss information that has not yet been released publicly, the group claimed 294 attacks in 2024, up from the 121 it claimed in 2023. The United Nations' Islamic State monitoring committee estimated about 400 attacks, while human rights observers in Syria said the number was even higher. Immediately after Mr. Assad's ouster, the United States sharply increased airstrikes against Islamic State redoubts in the Syrian desert, tamping down a resurgent militancy that was attracting fighters and increasing attacks, according to the United Nations and U.S. officials. A senior Islamic State leader believed to be the head of the group in Iraq and Syria was killed in an American drone strike in March. The operation, which took place in Anbar Province, in Iraq, relied on intelligence from both Iraq and the United States, Iraq's prime minister and U.S. officials said. The Islamic State leader, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay'i, who was also known as Abu Khadija, was 'one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world,' the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said in a statement at the time. But troubling signs have recently emerged. The Islamic State conducted two attacks in Syria in January, nine in February and 19 in March, according to Charles Lister, a senior fellow and the head of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute in Washington. In the first two weeks of April, ISIS carried out at least 14 attacks, placing it on course for a fourth consecutive monthly increase, Mr. Lister said. 'No actor stands more determined to drive instability in a post-Assad Syria than ISIS,' Mr. Lister wrote this week, urging the United States to support the new Syrian government, led by a onetime Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al Sham and Mr. al-Shara. 'If Syria succeeds, ISIS and all other malign actors will be dealt mortal blows.' The United States hopes the new Syrian government will become a partner against a resurgent Islamic State. Initial signs have been positive, with the group acting on U.S.-provided intelligence to disrupt eight ISIS plots in Damascus, American officials said. Deeper U.S. troop cuts, however, could be in store, threatening the stability of that transition, some analysts say. The Trump administration is expected to conduct a broad review of its Syria policy, and some officials say that U.S. forces could be more than halved or withdrawn completely, as NBC News and Al-Monitor, among other media outlets, have previously reported. Many important Middle East policy positions remain unfilled on the White House's National Security Council, as well as at the State Department and the Pentagon, slowing any comprehensive Syria policy review, officials and independent analysts said.
New York Times
28-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Deal With Kurds May Benefit Erdogan at Home and Abroad
By seeking a peace deal with Kurdish militants, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is attempting something momentous that not only aims to end 40 years of violent insurgency inside Turkey but envisions ambitious change across the region. The call on Thursday by Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K., for his militants to lay down their arms followed months of negotiations and was a well thought out answer to the challenges Mr. Erdogan faces, said Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. At home it could earn Mr. Erdogan the Kurdish support he needs for constitutional changes to give the Turkish leader — who has steadily expanded his power over more than 20 years — another run at the presidency. Farther afield, ending the conflict with Kurdish groups that are ranged across parts of Iraq, Syria and Turkey would release Turkey and its military of a huge burden. If Kurds in neighboring Syria follow suit, it has the potential to calm a longstanding regional conflict and help stabilize an allied, fledgling government in Damascus. 'This is a historic call,' Ms. Aydintasbas, said of Mr. Ocalan's appeal. The proposal 'has a lot to do with the geopolitical pressures building up in Turkey's neighborhood, creating a sense of insecurity for both Turks and Kurds,' she said. 'The chaotic start of the Trump administration and the uncertainty about Syria's future also seem to have made it evident to Ankara that it needs to consolidate on the home front,' Ms. Aydintasbas added, 'and there is no better way to do it than a deal with Kurds.' Mr. Ocalan's militant group, the P.K.K., 'will almost certainly' heed his appeal, she said. It has suffered militarily since attempting to fight urban battles in eastern Turkish cities in 2015 and has largely retreated to strongholds in the mountainous areas of Iraq. But the Kurdish forces in Syria, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., were boosted by training and equipment from the Pentagon as they joined the United States in its operations against the Islamic State in Syria. Turkey has long considered them a terrorist threat aimed at undermining security along its southern border. Turkey has close ties with the rebel movement Hayat Tahrir al Sham that seized control of Syria in December after ousting the longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad. Turkish officials have made it clear that removing or diluting the perceived Kurdish threat on its borders is a priority in its dealings with the new government in Damascus. Mazloum Abdi, the Kurdish leader of the S.D.F., is a close follower of Mr. Ocalan and will most likely heed his appeal to turn to peaceful, democratic change, Ms. Aydintasbas said. Mr. Abdi, in comments during an online news briefing on Thursday, said that Mr. Ocalan had informed him about the decision to lay down arms in a letter and had emphasized the value of peace and stability for the whole region. Mr. Abdi welcomed the initiative, saying that it would resolve Turkey's security concerns and ease the situation for his own forces in Syria. His priority was his own negotiations with the new government in Damascus, he said. The idea for a peace agreement was first floated in October by a close political ally of Mr. Erdogan's, the nationalist politician Devlet Bahceli. Mr. Erdogan openly backed peace negotiations with the Kurds a decade ago before they broke down disastrously with fierce fighting breaking out in Kurdish cities. Perhaps because of that and lingering uncertainties about whether the plan will stick, he has remained slightly aloof from the peace overtures this time. Neither he nor any of his cabinet reacted to Mr. Ocalan's call on Thursday. But his ambitions in the region and beyond are well known. After taking in more than three million Syrian refugees since the Arab Spring uprising of 2011, he had been a strong supporter of the rebel groups fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and he still enjoys close ties with those groups now that they are in government. At the same time, he has extended Turkey's military and diplomatic reach into Africa and has offered Syria military training assistance for its army and air support by proposing the positioning of units of the Turkish air force in Syrian bases. One of Turkey's concerns is to curb interference from other countries into Syria, including Israel, which has advanced troops into parts of southern Syria and made overtures to the Syrian Kurds. Mr. Erdogan will be also calculating for political gains at home from peace with the Kurds, who represent an important political force that has sided with a coalition of opposition parties against Mr. Erdogan. The Kurds have already made clear that they are expecting political and legal safeguards in any deal. They would be likely to demand the release of political prisoners and changes in terrorism legislation and constitutional amendments, Ms. Aydintasbas said. A deal with the Kurds could allow for constitutional changes that would remove ethnic divisions and give Kurds a devolution of power. It could also give Mr. Erdogan another run at the presidency, his former prime minister Binali Yildirim said in comments made in a speech in the city of Izmir, reported by Turkish media Friday. 'We are surrounded by instability, dangers and threats,' Mr. Yildirim said. 'For this, stability, trust and, most importantly, a strong leader are needed. Therefore, the way should be opened for our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to run for president again. The new constitution should also foresee this.'
