Syrian leader grants Kurds citizenship and national language status

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday, January 16, issued a decree designating Kurdish as a “national language,” extending national rights to the Kurdish minority and declaring the Kurdish new year, Nowruz, a national holiday.

The decree also restores citizenship to Kurds who were stripped of it under the 1962 census, a measure long demanded by the community, according to foreign media.

The announcement came as tensions flared again between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters east of Aleppo. Despite a meeting earlier in the day between the US-led coalition and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) aimed at calming the situation, the Syrian army warned it would launch strikes on Deir Hafer, about 50 kilometres east of Aleppo. It accused Kurdish units of using the area “as a launching point for their terrorist operations towards the city of Aleppo and its eastern countryside.”

The army last week expelled Kurdish forces from Aleppo city and has since reinforced positions around Kurdish-held Deir Hafer, ordering SDF fighters to withdraw.

Sharaa’s decree marks a major shift after decades during which Kurdish language education, publishing, and broadcasting were heavily restricted under Assad's rule. The government has been working to reassert nationwide control following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in December 2024. A March agreement called for the northern Kurdish autonomous administration and its forces to be integrated into the state, but disagreements have slowed implementation, prompting repeated clashes. Kurdish leaders continue to demand a decentralised federal system, which Damascus rejects.

SDF spokesman Farhad Shami said the US-led coalition met with Kurdish commanders in Deir Hafer on January 16. A Syrian military source later confirmed that a Syrian defence ministry delegation had also entered the area to negotiate with SDF leaders. US envoy Tom Barrack wrote on X that he was working “around the clock” to prevent escalation between the two sides, which both receive backing from Washington.

The SDF controls wide stretches of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, seized during the civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group. Syrian state television, citing local authorities, reported “more than 4,000 civilians” fleeing the Kurdish-held Deir Hafer region. Journalists saw residents using a makeshift bridge to cross a branch of the Euphrates, repeating scenes from Aleppo last week, when civilians were ordered to leave before government shelling.

“The SDF stopped us from leaving – that’s why we used an agricultural back road and then crossed the bridge,” said Abu Mohammad, 60, who was fleeing with relatives. Civilians have been escaping via back roads since Thursday, January 15. Syrian authorities extended the deadline to leave until Friday, accusing the SDF of blocking departures — a charge the group denied as “unfounded.”

The Syrian military on Friday urged SDF members to “hurry and defect from this organisation and return to your country and your people.” The SDF said the appeal was intended to “create discord among the region’s communities.”

Government forces seized full control of Aleppo city on January 11 after capturing two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods. According to Nanar Hawach of the International Crisis Group, the loss of these districts “doesn’t change the military balance” but demonstrates Damascus’s readiness “to impose costs when negotiations stall.” While the government “cannot replicate” this operation in the northeast, Hawach added, it can maintain pressure along contact lines such as Deir Hafer.

By Tamilla Hasanova