Yes, I do OSINT and fact-check for Syria and this is a very positive development. Still I want to underline that this document doesn’t detail anything about Kurdish language courses in schools. Rn Kurdish is taught 2h a week. Another example Syria’s army is still called its Assadist predecessor SAA - Syrian Arab Army. This might change and this document is a positive step towards that. Also the gov recognized Norwuz as a national holiday. Rn Mazloum Abdi the leader of SDF also announced it is leaving to east bank of the river. This is very good for Kurds and Syrians in general.
I also want to underline that this is just the next step of a series of diplomatic efforts by the US and France to make sure Syria is united, strong, and respects the rights of minorities. Before that you had March 10 agreement, etc. The details of what Sharaa signed now were agreed upon in October 2025.
Yes, I do OSINT and fact-check for Syria and this is a very positive developmen
With regard to this, will this new law be a positive for all smaller minorities as well
.No expert here, but in how far was this a Türkiye push ( thus political necessity instead of humanitarian), and will this be the first resolution of many new inclusive ones, you reckon?
tldr: Possibly, the diplomatic push is mostly US-France.
US and France started all of this Turkey would like PKK/YPG dealt with asap. Ofc even if STG hated Kurds they would push for this but for example 20% of new officer graduates in Aleppo are Kurds. SDF wanted a deal like what Barzani has in Iraq but Syria rejected it ( Turkey too) bcs of PKK/YPG. So far they haven’t talked about the same rights for Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, etc. Their communities are smaller and in mixed areas so I doubt they would get the same legal rights as Kurds like in the case of language learning in school. Fidan the FM of Turkey and STG have been pushing the line “we love Kurds we just hate PKK” to try to chip away at SDF power so that people flip over. Still I think progress is being made but nobody can predict the future of course. I think it looks promising.
If you look at the way the government reacted to the massacres committed there is progress. There was an immense number of warcrimes committed on the coast mostly by ex-SNA( Turkish proxy) units, 1.4k dead, after that Syria started centralizing the military( still people like Abu Amsha have more autonomy, he is also well liked by Ankara despite ethnically cleansing Kurds in Afrin). Syria also embedded police units to run after the military ones in order to prevent war crimes from happening even before the events in the south. Israel bombed the space between the primary military units and the supporting ones tho and SAA units were seen assaulting civilians. For Sheikh Maqsoud, so far we have footage of only 4 wacrimes( mistreatment of POW) 2 of which of snipers , 1 of which w/ suicide belt. Also they made sure to use mostly ex-HTS, only 1 ex-SNA unit ( 72nd) was used. Compare that to 1.4k civilians killed on the coast.
If this deal builds towards a further SDF integration it would be far better not only for Kurds, Syrians in general human rights wise, but also al-Sharaa will have a counter to Abu Amsha and ex-SNA units that are loved by Turkey. If anything al-Sharaa is bringing Syria back in the Arab fold and trying to juggle alliances and influences so that he can govern. If STG builds good institutions in the future or if it can survive remains to be seen.
this deal builds towards a further SDF integration it would be far better not only for Kurds, Syrians in general human rights wise, but also al-Sharaa will have a counter
It’s a delicate balance. Afaik, but I’m not sure, the integration of all parties in the SDF was to lower the risk of future conflict, ensure rebuilding and aid, but also to sort of force the groups to work together. In this, imo Saudis and Turkey want different things. I don’t think anything sharia will help minorities in the future with their Separate religions… And a more moderate way - say initiatives like respecting Kurdish - is the way forward.
The atrocities you mentioned took place before the regime fell ? I thought part of the truce after the Assad regime fell, was that past mistakes were forgiven, including war crimes, or were these recently done?
#add When you say that France & USA are pushing the way, are they translating the Saudi and Türkiye agenda into a sort of one big plan; or are ther actually many coexisting plans?
UPDATE: Syria’s Deputy Defense Minister, Syrian commander of Turkmen origin Fehim İsa, has resigned.
Isa said he resigned in protest of the systematic marginalization of Syria’s Turkmen, in contrast to the positive discrimination and linguistic/cultural rights granted to Syrian Kurds.
I will just post Eli Tsurkov’s comment: " oh no! What will the Syrian Army do without his skills in mercenary work outside of Syria, ethnic cleansing of Kurds, looting, running torture dungeons and protection rackets? "
Nope, after the regime fell. There was an Assadist uprising on the coast in March 2025 where government-aligned forces, overwhelmingly ex-SNA massacres more than a thousand civilians. Druze was Hijri proclaims his authority at the end of March after Syrians in Homs chanted racist chants against Druze and Israeli Druze even started entering to fight in Syria, ethnically cleanses several tribes ( one of them - the Sirhan tribe was almost entirely wiped out in Syria but Jordanian bedouins and forces intervened). Sharaa initially blocked tribes and ary from entering, he then let in angry unorganised tribes that killed Druzes, then the SAA entered and did more violations.
There are a lot different visions of Syria most of which see it as united. Turkey wants 100% Turkish puppet but the US is trying to balance out Israel and Turkey and other actors so that the Middle East is stable. ( Israel did 750 bombings and 125 ground incursions in first 3 months post 08.12.2024( fall of Assad regime), in 7 months - 987 air & artillery strikes, 421 ground incursions, occupied ~180 km^2 of land, had Swuieda as a puppet. There are also Syria-Israel talks and there were recently Turkey-Israeli talks that could lead to more detente. Saudi mostly wants to invent and get Syria aligned with the GCC. UAE is also having a stake in Syria and with the new Saudi-UAE cold war we might see where Syria goes.
Also the links to resources maniacalmanicmania put in the lemmy.world Syria channel he made is amazing. If you want 1 person to listen to Wassim Nasr, who works for France 24 has got you covered.
Will guarantee better rights and economy for Syrians. Rn if you are a anti-PKK Kurds, like ENKS, you will get prosecuted, there is no real freedom of speech in SDF, Arabs get ethnically cleansed, etc. Integration guarantees that it will no longer see itself as hostile to Syria and Syrians will no longer hate SDF. This law that was signed is a step that shows Syria really is for all and not just a statement that was said ( as I said before STG never did much to assure Kurds they will have the same rights they get in SDF). No integration basically means war.
There are hardliners on both sides who are skeptical of the integration process or even insist on a military solution. On the STG side, I consider the SNA commanders to be particularly problematic; It’s a fact that they’ve killed and tortured Kurdish civilians + looted their homes in the past. In northeastern Syria, the main issue lies with the political leadership, namely the PYD.
Mazloum, on the other hand, is a good man - I am 100% convinced of that. He has a difficult past, but so does Sharaa. However, since Mazloum is the military leader not the political one, he cannot simply make all decisions on his own. Some figures within the political leadership (PYD) are problematic, for example Aldar Khalil or Salih Muslim. Both are problematic for the integration process. They are PKK hardliners and continue to employ child soldiers and suicide bombers, which were officially banned in 2019.
Integration( with autonomy, rights, etc) is what most Kurds in SDF support too, including Mazloum Abdi, not just Kurds in STG.
New update: Syria’s ( Kurdish) Education minister promised to fast track Kurdish language education. Full text below.
Minister of Education and Higher Education Muhammad Abdul Rahman Turko:
📌 In a pivotal national moment, the issuance of Decree No. 13 of 2026 by His Excellency the President of the Republic represents a new affirmation that Syria, with its ancient history and civilizational mission, is built upon the diversity of its people and its unity is solidified through respect for their cultural and linguistic identities within an inclusive national framework that excludes no one and marginalizes no component.
📌 The approval of teaching the Kurdish language in public schools, as stipulated by the decree, constitutes an advanced step in strengthening the values of equal citizenship and entrenching the cultural rights of Kurdish citizens as an integral part of the Syrian national fabric, and a tangible contribution to preserving cultural diversity as one of the sources of the civilizational and social richness of the Syrian state, and a clear embodiment of the state’s commitment to the educational and cultural rights of its citizens without discrimination or exclusion.
📌 Based on our national and educational responsibility, we affirm in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education that we will proceed to prepare the necessary executive instructions and organizational decisions to implement the provisions of this decree in the shortest possible time, ensuring its immediate entry into actual implementation in everything related to the ministry’s work, while taking into account established educational principles and academic standards, and guaranteeing a balanced and disciplined application that achieves the desired national and humanitarian goal.
📌 We believe that the Syrian school will remain the primary incubator for societal unity, and that education is the truest bridge for entrenching understanding, deepening national belonging, and building generations confident in their identity, proud of their diversity, and steadfast in the unity of their homeland in land and people.
📌 We pledge that our national schools will remain a space of belonging, not exclusion; a platform of justice, not discrimination; and a tool for preserving diversity to fortify unity among the people of this homeland, and a bridge of love that connects all Syrians—heart and soul, form and content.
In the context of sending more troops to stare down the barrel at Kurds’ positions, maybe or maybe not.
Context:
The leader of Kurdish-led forces in Syria announced Friday that they will withdraw from a contested area in northern Syria, potentially heading off a major clash with government forces.
The announcement by Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, came as the Syrian military announced it had begun striking SDF positions, while the SDF reported “intense artillery shelling” in the town of Deir Hafer east of the city of Aleppo.
Hours earlier, a U.S. military designation had visited Deir Hafer and met with SDF officials in an apparent attempt to tamp down tensions.
The U.S. has good relations with both sides and has urged calm. A spokesperson for the U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Abdi said in a statement posted on X that “based on calls from friendly countries and mediators and in a demonstration of good faith,” the SDF would redeploy its forces to areas east of the Euphrates River Saturday morning.
Shortly before Abdi’s announcement, interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had announced issuance of a decree strengthening Kurdish rights.
My interpretation: Kurds are trading territorial control for rights, under threat of violence. If Syrian laws prove to be more than “ink on paper”, maybe it will be good. But many people are leaving their homes and withdrawing together with SDF troops, because they don’t dare to live in territory ceded to the Syrian central government. For them, that is pretty damn bad.
As for the river - it does provide a logical (natural) border, with SDF on the eastern bank and government troops on the western bank. I guess Western countries urged SDF to fall back to a defensible position, and government troops shelled them to emphasize that their current position was not very defensible. The new Syrian government resembles the old one in this sense - it has such a friendly way of giving reminders.
That’s good news, for a change. Right?
Yes, I do OSINT and fact-check for Syria and this is a very positive development. Still I want to underline that this document doesn’t detail anything about Kurdish language courses in schools. Rn Kurdish is taught 2h a week. Another example Syria’s army is still called its Assadist predecessor SAA - Syrian Arab Army. This might change and this document is a positive step towards that. Also the gov recognized Norwuz as a national holiday. Rn Mazloum Abdi the leader of SDF also announced it is leaving to east bank of the river. This is very good for Kurds and Syrians in general.
I also want to underline that this is just the next step of a series of diplomatic efforts by the US and France to make sure Syria is united, strong, and respects the rights of minorities. Before that you had March 10 agreement, etc. The details of what Sharaa signed now were agreed upon in October 2025.
With regard to this, will this new law be a positive for all smaller minorities as well
.No expert here, but in how far was this a Türkiye push ( thus political necessity instead of humanitarian), and will this be the first resolution of many new inclusive ones, you reckon?
tldr: Possibly, the diplomatic push is mostly US-France.
US and France started all of this Turkey would like PKK/YPG dealt with asap. Ofc even if STG hated Kurds they would push for this but for example 20% of new officer graduates in Aleppo are Kurds. SDF wanted a deal like what Barzani has in Iraq but Syria rejected it ( Turkey too) bcs of PKK/YPG. So far they haven’t talked about the same rights for Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, etc. Their communities are smaller and in mixed areas so I doubt they would get the same legal rights as Kurds like in the case of language learning in school. Fidan the FM of Turkey and STG have been pushing the line “we love Kurds we just hate PKK” to try to chip away at SDF power so that people flip over. Still I think progress is being made but nobody can predict the future of course. I think it looks promising.
If you look at the way the government reacted to the massacres committed there is progress. There was an immense number of warcrimes committed on the coast mostly by ex-SNA( Turkish proxy) units, 1.4k dead, after that Syria started centralizing the military( still people like Abu Amsha have more autonomy, he is also well liked by Ankara despite ethnically cleansing Kurds in Afrin). Syria also embedded police units to run after the military ones in order to prevent war crimes from happening even before the events in the south. Israel bombed the space between the primary military units and the supporting ones tho and SAA units were seen assaulting civilians. For Sheikh Maqsoud, so far we have footage of only 4 wacrimes( mistreatment of POW) 2 of which of snipers , 1 of which w/ suicide belt. Also they made sure to use mostly ex-HTS, only 1 ex-SNA unit ( 72nd) was used. Compare that to 1.4k civilians killed on the coast.
If this deal builds towards a further SDF integration it would be far better not only for Kurds, Syrians in general human rights wise, but also al-Sharaa will have a counter to Abu Amsha and ex-SNA units that are loved by Turkey. If anything al-Sharaa is bringing Syria back in the Arab fold and trying to juggle alliances and influences so that he can govern. If STG builds good institutions in the future or if it can survive remains to be seen.
It’s a delicate balance. Afaik, but I’m not sure, the integration of all parties in the SDF was to lower the risk of future conflict, ensure rebuilding and aid, but also to sort of force the groups to work together. In this, imo Saudis and Turkey want different things. I don’t think anything sharia will help minorities in the future with their Separate religions… And a more moderate way - say initiatives like respecting Kurdish - is the way forward.
The atrocities you mentioned took place before the regime fell ? I thought part of the truce after the Assad regime fell, was that past mistakes were forgiven, including war crimes, or were these recently done?
#add When you say that France & USA are pushing the way, are they translating the Saudi and Türkiye agenda into a sort of one big plan; or are ther actually many coexisting plans?
Tnx for your elaborate answer.
UPDATE: Syria’s Deputy Defense Minister, Syrian commander of Turkmen origin Fehim İsa, has resigned.
Isa said he resigned in protest of the systematic marginalization of Syria’s Turkmen, in contrast to the positive discrimination and linguistic/cultural rights granted to Syrian Kurds.
I will just post Eli Tsurkov’s comment: " oh no! What will the Syrian Army do without his skills in mercenary work outside of Syria, ethnic cleansing of Kurds, looting, running torture dungeons and protection rackets? "
Nope, after the regime fell. There was an Assadist uprising on the coast in March 2025 where government-aligned forces, overwhelmingly ex-SNA massacres more than a thousand civilians. Druze was Hijri proclaims his authority at the end of March after Syrians in Homs chanted racist chants against Druze and Israeli Druze even started entering to fight in Syria, ethnically cleanses several tribes ( one of them - the Sirhan tribe was almost entirely wiped out in Syria but Jordanian bedouins and forces intervened). Sharaa initially blocked tribes and ary from entering, he then let in angry unorganised tribes that killed Druzes, then the SAA entered and did more violations.
There are a lot different visions of Syria most of which see it as united. Turkey wants 100% Turkish puppet but the US is trying to balance out Israel and Turkey and other actors so that the Middle East is stable. ( Israel did 750 bombings and 125 ground incursions in first 3 months post 08.12.2024( fall of Assad regime), in 7 months - 987 air & artillery strikes, 421 ground incursions, occupied ~180 km^2 of land, had Swuieda as a puppet. There are also Syria-Israel talks and there were recently Turkey-Israeli talks that could lead to more detente. Saudi mostly wants to invent and get Syria aligned with the GCC. UAE is also having a stake in Syria and with the new Saudi-UAE cold war we might see where Syria goes.
Also the links to resources maniacalmanicmania put in the lemmy.world Syria channel he made is amazing. If you want 1 person to listen to Wassim Nasr, who works for France 24 has got you covered.
Why is SDF integration desirable?
Will guarantee better rights and economy for Syrians. Rn if you are a anti-PKK Kurds, like ENKS, you will get prosecuted, there is no real freedom of speech in SDF, Arabs get ethnically cleansed, etc. Integration guarantees that it will no longer see itself as hostile to Syria and Syrians will no longer hate SDF. This law that was signed is a step that shows Syria really is for all and not just a statement that was said ( as I said before STG never did much to assure Kurds they will have the same rights they get in SDF). No integration basically means war.
There are hardliners on both sides who are skeptical of the integration process or even insist on a military solution. On the STG side, I consider the SNA commanders to be particularly problematic; It’s a fact that they’ve killed and tortured Kurdish civilians + looted their homes in the past. In northeastern Syria, the main issue lies with the political leadership, namely the PYD. Mazloum, on the other hand, is a good man - I am 100% convinced of that. He has a difficult past, but so does Sharaa. However, since Mazloum is the military leader not the political one, he cannot simply make all decisions on his own. Some figures within the political leadership (PYD) are problematic, for example Aldar Khalil or Salih Muslim. Both are problematic for the integration process. They are PKK hardliners and continue to employ child soldiers and suicide bombers, which were officially banned in 2019.
Integration( with autonomy, rights, etc) is what most Kurds in SDF support too, including Mazloum Abdi, not just Kurds in STG.
New update: Syria’s ( Kurdish) Education minister promised to fast track Kurdish language education. Full text below.
Minister of Education and Higher Education Muhammad Abdul Rahman Turko:
📌 In a pivotal national moment, the issuance of Decree No. 13 of 2026 by His Excellency the President of the Republic represents a new affirmation that Syria, with its ancient history and civilizational mission, is built upon the diversity of its people and its unity is solidified through respect for their cultural and linguistic identities within an inclusive national framework that excludes no one and marginalizes no component.
📌 The approval of teaching the Kurdish language in public schools, as stipulated by the decree, constitutes an advanced step in strengthening the values of equal citizenship and entrenching the cultural rights of Kurdish citizens as an integral part of the Syrian national fabric, and a tangible contribution to preserving cultural diversity as one of the sources of the civilizational and social richness of the Syrian state, and a clear embodiment of the state’s commitment to the educational and cultural rights of its citizens without discrimination or exclusion.
📌 Based on our national and educational responsibility, we affirm in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education that we will proceed to prepare the necessary executive instructions and organizational decisions to implement the provisions of this decree in the shortest possible time, ensuring its immediate entry into actual implementation in everything related to the ministry’s work, while taking into account established educational principles and academic standards, and guaranteeing a balanced and disciplined application that achieves the desired national and humanitarian goal.
📌 We believe that the Syrian school will remain the primary incubator for societal unity, and that education is the truest bridge for entrenching understanding, deepening national belonging, and building generations confident in their identity, proud of their diversity, and steadfast in the unity of their homeland in land and people.
📌 We pledge that our national schools will remain a space of belonging, not exclusion; a platform of justice, not discrimination; and a tool for preserving diversity to fortify unity among the people of this homeland, and a bridge of love that connects all Syrians—heart and soul, form and content.
If 10% of that becomes actual reality in schools, it might be an acceptable outcome.
In the context of sending more troops to stare down the barrel at Kurds’ positions, maybe or maybe not.
Context:
Source: Kurdish-led forces to withdraw from contested area in Syria
My interpretation: Kurds are trading territorial control for rights, under threat of violence. If Syrian laws prove to be more than “ink on paper”, maybe it will be good. But many people are leaving their homes and withdrawing together with SDF troops, because they don’t dare to live in territory ceded to the Syrian central government. For them, that is pretty damn bad.
As for the river - it does provide a logical (natural) border, with SDF on the eastern bank and government troops on the western bank. I guess Western countries urged SDF to fall back to a defensible position, and government troops shelled them to emphasize that their current position was not very defensible. The new Syrian government resembles the old one in this sense - it has such a friendly way of giving reminders.
I doubt it, seems like he’s saying this while forces aligned with him are killing kurds is just to persuade suckers (e.g Tankies).