President Ahmad al-Sharaa of Syria issued a decree Friday affirming the rights of Kurdish Syrians, according to state media, in what was widely considered an overture to the minority group after days of deadly clashes between government and Kurdish forces.
The decree recognized Kurdish as a national language, alongside Arabic, and adopted Nowruz, the Persian new year that is widely celebrated by Kurds, as an official holiday in Syria. Al-Sharaa also called for the government to grant Syrian citizenship to Kurdish residents who were stripped of it after a 1962 census designed to curb Kurdish political influence.
The Kurdish-led administration that governs much of northeast Syria welcomed the move as a “first step” but said that it “does not meet the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people,” adding that such rights must be enshrined in a constitution.
The announcement Friday came after days of intense fighting in northern Syria between al-Sharaa’s government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, that many feared could escalate into a broader conflict between the two sides.
“Beware of believing the narrative that we want harm to our Kurdish people,” al-Sharaa said in a video announcing the decree posted on the Syrian Arab News Agency, the state media outlet. “Your well-being is our well-being.”
Fears of Renewed Clashes
On Friday evening, many feared renewed clashes between the two sides in a contested area in eastern Aleppo, one of Syria’s biggest cities. But Saturday morning, hours after the government struck SDF targets there, Kurdish forces began withdrawing from the area.
It remained unclear whether doing so would head off further clashes with the government.
Over the past year, al-Sharaa’s government and the SDF have been engaged in negotiations to integrate the group into the new national military. But progress on those talks has stalled in recent months, and last week, tensions between the two sides erupted into clashes in Aleppo. At least 24 civilians were killed in five days of fighting while thousands were forced to flee their neighborhoods.
It was some of the most intense fighting since the end of the civil war in December 2024, when al-Sharaa’s coalition of rebel groups ousted the dictatorship of Bashar Assad.
Around the time al-Sharaa announced the decree affirming Kurdish Syrians’ rights, the national military said it had begun striking those SDF positions.
Soon after, the leader of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, said in a post on the social platform X that his forces would withdraw from the contested area, citing calls from friendly countries and mediators. The forces would redeploy to areas east of the Euphrates River, he added.
The fighting over the past week has underscored the challenge al-Sharaa faces as he vows to unite a country that is deeply fractured after nearly 14 years of civil war. Since his largely Sunni Muslim government came to power, two regions of Syria home to mostly minority groups — the Kurdish-controlled northeast and the Druze in the southern province of Sweida — have refused to submit to the central government’s authority.
Leaders Wary
Leaders of both are wary of al-Sharaa, the former commander of a rebel group once allied to al-Qaida, and his Islamist-led government. Some also doubt the government’s ability to protect minority rights after bouts of sectarian-driven violence over the past year.
The Kurds, who make up about a tenth of Syria’s population, were denied many basic rights, including identity papers and business licenses, under more than five decades of the Assad family’s rule in Syria.
The decree al-Sharaa signed Friday “breaks decisively” with decades of “Arab nationalist exclusion that denied Kurds” in Syria, according to Ibrahim al-Assil, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University.
Still, many remained skeptical of the announcement and the motivations behind it.
“Mistrust runs deep, and many Kurds are cautiously welcoming this while remaining skeptical,” al-Assil said. “Ultimately, the decree will be judged by behavior, not words.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Christina Goldbaum
c. 2026 The New York Times Company
