DAMASCUS: A delegation from northeast Syria’s semi-autonomous Kurdish administration was headed to Damascus on Saturday for talks on implementing a March deal to integrate Kurdish institutions into the state, a member of the delegation said.
Under the agreement signed by Syria’s interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurds are to integrate their civil and military institutions into the national government.
The deal includes all border crossings, oil and gas fields, and a regional airport.
A member of the Kurdish delegation said that “a delegation from the autonomous administration is on the way to Damascus to discuss” details of the March deal.
Despite the accord, the Kurds have criticized a constitutional declaration announced by the new authorities, who took power after ousting Bashar Assad in December, and said the new government failed to reflect the Syrian Arab Republic’s diversity.
Last month, Syrian Kurdish parties adopted a joint vision of a “decentralized democratic state,” a move rejected by Damascus, which warned against attempts at separatism or federalism by the minority group.
The March agreement states that the Kurds are an “essential component of the Syrian state,” guaranteeing the “right to citizenship and all ... constitutional rights.”
Syria’s Kurds suffered marginalization and repression under Assad’s rule, being deprived of the right to speak their language and celebrate their holidays and, in many cases, of Syrian nationality.
Earlier this month, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani warned that delaying the implementation of the deal would “prolong the chaos” in the country.
In an interview broadcast by Shams TV, based in Irbil in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region, SDF chief Abdi said that “we are committed to what was agreed with Damascus and we are currently working on implementing this agreement.”
He emphasized the need for a “decentralized Syria where all its components live with their full rights and nobody is excluded.”
But he accused Syria’s new authorities of wanting centralization and of “not being ready for everyone to live in Syria.”
Kurdish-led forces took control of much of Syria’s northeast, including its oil fields, during the country’s civil war and the Daesh insurgency.
With support from a US-led international coalition, the Kurdish-led SDF played a key role in Daesh’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.
Abdi said all Syrians should benefit from Syria’s oil wealth but said the Kurds wanted “an autonomous administration to govern locally and for the people of the area to manage security and political institutions.”