The highest responsible of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, announced this Tuesday in Damascus the official dissolution of the Kurdish-Arab militia as an "independent military force," within the framework of the integration agreement sealed at the end of January with the Syrian transitional president, Ahmed al Shara.
During an appearance at the Syrian Presidency headquarters, Abdi explained that this step occurs after the incorporation of its personnel into units of the national Army has been completed. "After the agreement with President Al Shara and once the integration of our forces into the brigades of the Syrian Army is completed, we announce today the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces and declare, with full responsibility, their dissolution as an independent military force," he stated before the media.
The Kurdish leader emphasized that the decision responds to the "historic moment" that the country is going through and considered it a turning point in the Syrian conflict. "We close an important chapter in the history of Syria and begin to write a new one, whose motto is peace, stability, and the reconstruction of the homeland," he noted after his meeting with the president.
The until now commander-in-chief of the SDF recalled that his fighters assumed a "great responsibility during one of the most difficult stages" experienced by Syria, facing both the "regime" of Hafez and Bashar al Assad and the "terrorism" of the Islamic State. However, he acknowledged that the current context requires a change of phase.
In that line, he expressed his willingness to direct efforts towards post-war and the reconstruction of the country. "We want this day to be the beginning of a true transition from the battlefields to the fields of reconstruction, from the era of weapons to the era of peace, and from the stage of defending Syria to the stage of building Syria," he indicated, before paying tribute to the "martyrs" of the militia, whom he evoked "because they did not fight for war, but for the day to come when Syrians would not have to fight."
Abdi also took advantage of his intervention to claim teaching in the Kurdish language as a "right" and announced that he will dedicate the coming months to promoting the implementation of the decree issued by Al Shara in January, which guarantees the rights and identity of the Kurdish population in the country.
He recalled that "the president has announced on several occasions the protection of this right. We have requested an open stance regarding the right to education in the mother tongue (of the Kurdish people) and the development of the current resolution in the future," he insisted, alluding to the expectations of the Kurdish community regarding the new legal framework.
The integration agreement, sponsored by the United States, was signed on January 29 by Al Shara and Abdi, after several days of intense fighting resulting from a new offensive by the security forces against Kurdish positions in the north and northeast of the country.
This process of incorporating the SDF into the Syrian Army had become one of the main points of friction between the parties, due to discrepancies over the integration model and the distribution of competencies, in a context marked by Washington's pressures in favor of Damascus and its demand to maintain control over all the territory, rejecting any formula of autonomy for the Kurdish authorities.