Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi announces full integration into state institutions

Integration confirmed in Qamishli

Syrian Democratic Forces leader Mazloum Abdi announced on 20 August 2026 that Kurdish civil, security, and military institutions have concluded their integration into the Syrian state apparatus. Speaking in Kurdish during centennial celebrations for the founding of the northeastern city of Qamishli, Abdi stated that the separate administrative structures established during the civil war have officially come to an end. The announcement concludes the autonomous self-rule that Kurdish authorities had maintained across northern and northeastern Syria since 2011. Central authorities from Damascus have assumed control of administrative functions, while Syrian government forces have entered and established a physical presence in both Hasakeh and Qamishli.

I want to say that the phase of integrating military, security and administrative institutions into national state institutions is complete and finished.

Terms of the January pact

The integration concludes nearly eight months of structured negotiations between Kurdish representatives and Damascus following an initial pact signed in January by Abdi and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. That agreement was negotiated after armed clashes between Kurdish fighters and government forces resulted in Kurdish forces losing substantial portions of territory across the oil-rich north and northeast. The territorial losses restricted Kurdish control primarily to Kurdish-majority areas within Hasakeh province. Under the terms of the agreement, Damascus assumed direct management of Qamishli airport as well as regional oil fields. The political process also included executive appointments, with President al-Sharaa appointing Qamishli native Noureddine Ahmed Eissa as governor of Hasakeh in February, and naming senior Kurdish commander Sipan Hamo as assistant defence minister for the eastern region in March.

Security shifts and detainee transfers

The administrative handover follows political shifts after an Islamist rebel coalition overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, prompting the new government to reunify state institutions. The United States, which had backed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces since their establishment in 2015 following the four-month battle against the Islamic State group in Kobane, withdrew its support for separate Kurdish administration in favour of ties with the new authorities in Damascus. During the transition, United States troops transferred more than 5,700 Islamic State group detainees from detention camps previously maintained by Kurdish authorities to neighbouring Iraq. Abdi did not publicly detail the specific administrative mechanisms used to merge SDF units and Kurdish security personnel into national military and policing structures.

Constitutional roadmap and future status

With administrative and military integration complete, Kurdish leadership announced that their focus will pivot toward legal guarantees in Syria's emerging governance framework. On 16 January 2026, President al-Sharaa issued a presidential decree recognising Kurdish national rights and designating Kurdish as an official national language, the first such legal measure since Syrian independence in 1946. Syria is presently operating under a five-year transition period during which the Syrian parliament is tasked with drafting and enacting a new national constitution. Abdi stressed that Kurdish representatives will work to ensure that national and cultural rights are permanently embedded in that constitutional text.

Our struggle will continue, to cement our people's rights in the constitution.