Kurdish forces join Syrian army

Kurdish forces will join the Syrian army. Mazloum Abdi announced this on August 25 during talks with representatives of the Syrian interim government in Damascus.

According to him, the civil and military institutions of the Kurdish autonomous administration will be integrated into the reformed state institutions of Syria. In this regard, the activities of independent Kurdish armed formations will be terminated.

The Syrian SANA news agency reported, citing Abdi, that the country's new government will retain the right to teach the Kurdish language in schools. Members of the Kurdish armed formations will be included in the brigades of the Syrian army.

Abdi stressed that this process will serve "peace, stability and the construction of a new Syria."

On the same day, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Shar'a also received a delegation led by Mazloum Abdi at the People's Palace in Damascus. The meeting discussed unresolved issues related to the integration of the Kurds into the country's state system.

Kurds live in large numbers in the northern and northeastern regions of Syria, bordering Turkey and Iraq. Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen and other ethnic groups also live here.

During the long civil war in Syria, a number of areas in the north and northeast of the country became de facto Kurdish autonomy. This area is also known as Rojava or Syrian Kurdistan.

Local armed forces later merged into the "Syrian Democratic Forces" alliance. According to reports, in 2024, the SDF had up to 100,000 fighters, making it one of the largest armed formations in the country.

Kurdish forces fought against the ISIS terrorist organization, as well as forces of the government of Bashar al-Assad during the war in Syria. However, the SDF did not directly participate as a major independent military force in the overthrow of Assad's regime.

After the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government, the SDF supported the transfer of power to an interim government, but demanded the preservation of Kurdish autonomy.