Abdi Had Already Declared This Step Complete Last Week in Syria

Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi announced Tuesday evening the dissolution of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), more than a decade after their formation. The forces will now be integrated into the Syrian army under an agreement reached in January, and the Kurdish self-administration in northeastern Syria will be placed under state control. In a televised address at the presidential palace in Damascus, delivered first in Arabic and then in Kurdish, Abdi said he was announcing "the end of the mission" of the SDF and declaring "in full responsibility their dissolution as an independent fighting force." He said circumstances "have changed today and the country has entered a new phase under the signs of peace and participation.

The dissolution follows an agreement signed in January with the government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The deal provides for the full integration of the Kurdish self-administration into the Syrian state apparatus and the deployment of Syrian security forces in Kurdish-populated regions. Abdi had already declared this step complete last week.

Sharaa also signed a decree in January granting Kurds minority rights. Syria expert Bente Scheller called the SDF's entry into the Syrian army a "really big step" for the Kurds, telling ORF.at that the agreement and integration of Kurdish forces finally allowed "all Syrian Kurds to regain their citizenship. Many Kurds had lost their citizenship in the 1960s. Kurdish was also accepted as a second official language.

However, Scheller questioned how much power the Kurds will actually retain. She noted that only the armed forces were integrated, and the Kurds have lost political autonomy. The future political status of Kurdish provinces in Syria remains unclear, she said.

The rights gained go "further than anything they ever had before, but the devil is in the details, as the rights were not elevated to constitutional rank." Scheller said that would be the next logical step if Sharaa's transitional government is serious. Scheller also saw a "blow" to women's rights, as the integration of the SDF's women's battalions into the Syrian army could not be pushed through, leaving a "fundamental part" missing. She noted that Ilham Ehmed, co-chair of the executive council of the Kurdish self-administration, appears in photos but "is not quoted with anything and does not appear in public." She added that women's rights were not particularly pronounced before either.

The United States had particularly pushed for the agreement. After the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Kurds in the north built a self-administration with their own institutions and armed forces with US support. Many of their fighters played a key role in the US-led coalition's military victory over the Islamic State (IS) terror militia.

At its peak, the SDF had about 100,000 fighters, both Kurdish and Arab, controlling large parts of oil-rich northern and northeastern Syria. After the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, the US increasingly turned to the new leadership in Damascus. On Monday, the US also announced the removal of Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.