Article: Syrian Government Signs Breakthrough Deal With Kurdish-Led Forces
This article highlights a cornerstone deal for Syria’s interim government led by HTS leader Ahmed Al Sharaa in a post-Assad political climate. The deal was between the Syrian Kurdish Militia, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF,) and how they have agreed to become integrated with the new government and also help further integrate all Syrian military and civil institutions to establish a more centralized government. The Syrian Kurdish militia controls the areas bordering Turkey, Northeastern Syria, and potentially having a place in the new Sunni government led by HTS will allow this largest Kurdish minority more political representation than they’ve had when suppressed under Assad. This is a milestone for the Kurdish movement, especially in action to the attempts at peace between the Turkish Kurdish movement, the PKK, and the Turkish government under Erdogan. The article states that this deal will also dissolve all other militant/rebel groups in Syria. With the SDF merging with the new interim Sunni government, this will reduce the SDF’s former US support, which is already foreseeably going to decrease with Trump in office. The HTS’s new government in opposing Assad’s totalitarian regime will likely still create an authoritarian structure, with few democratic elements such as separate branches including an independent judiciary as well as limited civil rights, as cited in the new 5-year temporary constitution signed by Ahmed Al Sharaa. And while Syria will still be an authoritarian Islamist power, the other difference from Assad’s regime is that it will be a Sunni Islamist power as opposed to the Alawite Shia off-shoot that existed under Assad. Without the previous US support of the SDF, and with ridding the sectarianism posed by various rebel/militant groups within Syria, the HTS interim government appears to be attempting to create a self-sufficient Sunni Islamist regime, but the soured relations with Turkey remain. Since, under this new deal, the SDF will be merged with Syria’s government, this gives them a lot more national power and influence, which could potentially cause a spillover into Turkey. The Turkish government has previously opposed the SDF’s support of the PKK, but with the SDF’s newfound place in Syrian government, and the PKK having surrendered the insurgency and made peace with Turkey’s government, this gives Turkey a significant amount of opportunity to project power and influence. Not to mention, HTS is already a proxy of Turkey and is now the ruling government of Syria. Ultimately, the Kurdish issue for Turkey seems to be at rest both domestically and with its Syrian neighbor. All of this further weakens Iran’s sphere of influence into Syria, which first dealt a blow with the fall of Assad’s pseudo-Shia regime (Alawite,) and Turkey’s increased sphere of influence presents another obstacle for Iran to do so. All of this strengthens Turkey’s influence as a dominant regional power, alongside Israel and Saudi Arabia, with Israel being the only other competitor for influence in Syria.