Deadly clashes erupted in Aleppo between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), highlighting growing tensions as the central government seeks to assert control over the Kurdish-held northeast. At least one soldier and one civilian were killed during the overnight fighting in the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods, which serve as front lines between government and SDF territory.
A cease-fire was announced the next morning after talks between Syrian Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Murhaf Abu Qasra and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi. However, Kurdish sources on the ground expect the violence to flare up again and even intensify, as tensions remain unresolved between the Kurds and the government of Ahmed al-Shara (al-Julani), who until last year was wanted by the United States for leading an Islamist terrorist organization.
“That’s what I expected, even before the clashes happened yesterday,” explained Adan, a Kurdish relief team leader who had just returned to Iraq from Syria. “They didn’t have an agreement.”
The two sides signed a contract in March to integrate the SDF into the national military, but it has yet to be implemented, deepening mistrust. “They disagree with each other, but if I were a Kurd from there, of course I wouldn’t trust the new government. And I wouldn’t want to join them.”
The Kurdish region remains excluded from Syria’s first post-Assad parliamentary elections, while tensions continue to rise over sectarian violence in other parts of the country. In July, there was a large-scale massacre of the Druze minority, and in March, more than a thousand Alawites were killed by forces connected to al-Shara’s government.
The Kurds are fiercely proud of their distinct culture, which sets them apart from the Arab majority in both Iraq and Syria. They also take great pride in Iraqi Kurdistan, the autonomous region they have built for themselves, one of the safest areas in the Middle East, offering its citizens a high standard of living.
Marion, a Kurdish man who has been living and working on both sides of the border to support Syrian Kurds, explained, “We are not like the others, like the rest of the Middle East. We are completely different, actually. The Kurds never invade; they only protect their region. In history, for the last three or four thousand years, they have never invaded their neighbors.”
He went on to describe the tolerance that defines both Iraqi Kurdistan and the Kurdish area of Syria: “They live their whole lives with Christians as neighbors.” During the war with ISIS, Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities sought refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. In Syria, a similar situation has emerged since al-Shara took control of the government last November, with Christians, Alawites, and other minorities sheltering in Kurdish-controlled areas under the protection of the Kurdish-led SDF.
In Syria, the Kurds occupy a semi-autonomous region known as Rojava, officially the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), though it lacks the formal recognition enjoyed by Iraqi Kurdistan. As a result, tensions between the Syrian Kurds and the central government in Damascus remain high, with sporadic clashes frequently breaking out and fears of a large-scale war continuing to grow. Meanwhile, al-Shara is pressing for the Kurdish-led SDF to integrate into the national army.
Adan explained why most Kurds are unwilling to accept peace on al-Shara’s terms. “How many people sacrificed their lives for the Kurds, for freedom, for the land, for their families?” he asked. Over the past few decades, the Kurds have endured the war against Saddam Hussein, the fight against ISIS, and now a low-intensity conflict to preserve their autonomy in Syria.
Marion recalled the dark days when the Kurds fought alongside the Americans to defend their territory from ISIS. “They raped, they kidnapped, they killed…” he said, describing the horrors the Kurds faced. One source of Kurdish pride, is the strength of the Peshmerga, their armed forces who fought courageously beside U.S. troops. Asking them to surrender control of their army would be difficult even under the best of circumstances, but with a Syrian government that came to power in a coup and is now pushing to reclaim Kurdish-held areas, Adan was firm: “If there’s no more SDF, there are no more Kurds. I don’t think I would accept that, because they spilled a lot of their blood. A lot of people sacrificed their lives to have freedom, to have their rights.”
Marion pulled out his cell phone and opened a detailed map of Syria. He had been explaining how the Syrian government had restricted development in Kurdish-held areas, but seeing it on the map made the disparity clear. Population density, businesses, roads, and infrastructure were all concentrated outside Rojava.
“Most of Syria’s income came from our region,” Marion said, pointing to the northeast, “because most of the oil and gas was from there, where the majority are Kurds. All that natural income was being used in the rest of Syria, not in our region, just because we were Kurds. We had no factories, no tourism, no hotels, no services…very basic infrastructure. The whole community depended on agriculture. We didn’t even have private banks until 2004 or 2006.”
We were sitting in a restaurant in Erbil, Kurdistan, when he gestured toward the center of the room. “If you go to the airport in Qamishli,( the main administrative centers of Rojava)” he said, “the whole airport is the size of this restaurant.” Then, laughing, he added, “But this is a luxury restaurant. The airport just has plain white walls.” On the map, the contrast was stark: factories clustered around Aleppo, Syria’s main industrial and trading city.
On the map, the difference was striking. The part of the city controlled by the Damascus government was packed with factories, businesses, and infrastructure, while the Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud, where the previous day’s fighting had taken place, consisted almost entirely of housing blocks for Kurdish laborers who had relocated in search of work.
Ironically, the economic neglect meant to punish the Kurds ended up strengthening them. With few opportunities at home, Kurdish families emphasized education, sending their children to Damascus to attend top universities in hopes of securing government jobs. Marion explained that what was meant to weaken the region had the opposite effect: “Because we didn’t have factories or private sector jobs, everyone studied. Now there are many highly educated Kurds in government offices.”
He believed that the Kurdish focus on education and peace explains why Iraqi Kurdistan has prospered—and why Syrian Kurds could build an orderly and more prosperous society if they were granted the same type of autonomy that Iraqi Kurds enjoy. But such autonomy would also require lasting peace for Kurdish communities to thrive.
Unfortunately, in addition to the conflict with al-Shara’s government, the Kurds are now facing a resurgence of ISIS, which had its former capital in Raqqa—inside Kurdish-administered territory. ISIS targeted all minorities, including the Kurds, and is currently exploiting Syria’s post-Assad chaos to rebuild and reorganize. Although the group no longer controls territory and its numbers have fallen from an estimated 50,000–100,000 fighters to around 2,500 today, it still launched hundreds of attacks across Syria in 2024.
Recently, Washington removed the terrorism designation on Ahmed al-Sharaa, and in May, President Donald Trump met with the Syrian leader in Riyadh. So far, however, Trump has not pressed al-Sharaa to grant autonomy to the Kurds. The Kurds remain strongly pro-American, despite the 2019 U.S. decision to allow Turkish forces to bomb Kurdish positions. Although that event left many Kurds less trusting, they still prefer partnership with the United States over any other nation.
Speaking about the meeting between al-Sharaa and Trump, Marion said in a frustrated voice, “The Kurds were America’s allies for twelve years, and they do more for a man who was on their terrorist list just a year ago than they do for us.”
Antonio Graceffo reporting from Iraqi Kurdistan
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