Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi announced on Tuesday evening the dissolution of the powerful Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the organization that served as the spearhead in the battles that led to the defeat of the Islamic State’s jihadists. The announcement comes in implementation of an agreement he signed earlier this year with Syria’s de facto president Ahmad al-Sharaa, who has declared his determination to “reunify” Syria.
“We announce today the end of the Syrian Democratic Forces’ mission and declare, with full responsibility, their dissolution as an independent military force,” said Abdi during a speech delivered in two languages — first in Arabic, then in Kurdish.
He made the announcement at the presidential palace in Damascus, following a meeting with the Islamist president — once the leader of Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, who over the years has maintained he severed all ties with the organization — in the presence of other Syrian Kurdish military and political leaders.
Syria’s de facto government and the Kurds had been negotiating for months over the implementation of an agreement signed in January, which called for the full integration of Kurdish institutions into the new state apparatus.
Since coming to power in 2024, the new de facto president, who ousted Bashar al-Assad, has stressed his intention to “reunite” a country torn apart by years of civil war and to disband all armed organizations.
Amid the chaos of the civil war (2011–2024), the Kurds seized control of vast areas of northern and northeastern Syria and established autonomous governing bodies.
According to Syrian state television, Abdi’s announcement also calls for the dissolution of the autonomous administration and all military and political structures reporting to it, along with their full integration into the Syrian state apparatus.
Abdi noted that the dissolution follows “the agreement reached with President Sharaa and the completion of the integration of our forces (…) into the Syrian army.”
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, described the development as “absolutely historic,” seeing it as “genuine integration” that “strengthens the national sovereignty” of the country.
A brief history of the Syrian Democratic Forces
The development follows the U.S. announcement the previous day that it was removing Syria from its blacklist of states accused of supporting “terrorism” — a key move for the country’s reconstruction and economic recovery.
The SDF, founded in 2015 at Washington’s initiative, served as the military arm of the autonomous Kurdish administration in Syria and played a pivotal role in defeating ISIS, with the support of the U.S.-led international anti-jihadist coalition.
At their peak, the SDF numbered up to 100,000 fighters by some estimates, primarily Kurds and Arabs, and controlled vast swaths of northern and northeastern Syria — regions rich in oil resources.
“Since the SDF’s founding, our fighters have shouldered enormous responsibility during one of the most difficult periods” in Syria’s history, said the organization’s commander.
“They liberated many cities and communities — first from the Ba’athist regime, then from the terrorism of Daesh,” he added, referring respectively to the government of the ousted president Assad, the heir to the Ba’ath Party in Syria, and ISIS, using the Arabic term for the jihadist organization.
Analysts see an end of an era for Syria’s Kurds
The dissolution of the SDF — long regarded as perhaps the best-trained and most organized faction in the entire country — marks, according to some experts, the end of an era for Syria’s Kurdish population.
The Kurdish minority had for decades dreamed of and ultimately fought for greater autonomy, up until the fall of former president Assad — a development that prompted Washington to shift its position and align itself with the new de facto authorities in Damascus, who are favorably disposed toward the United States.
Remnants of ISIS, despite the jihadist organization’s defeat in Syria in 2019 when its “caliphate” collapsed and it lost all its territory, remain active in the country.
“Circumstances have changed today and the country has entered a new phase,” said Abdi, speaking of “peace” and “participation.”
He nonetheless emphasized that “the right to education in the Kurdish language is among the most important rights the Kurdish people have been seeking for decades” and recalled that de facto president Sharaa has repeatedly expressed his commitment to defending it.
Syria’s Kurdish population: 2 million strong
According to analysts, the Kurdish population in Syria is estimated at 2 million, out of a total population of approximately 20 million.
In January, Syria’s de facto president signed an executive decree recognizing rights for the Kurdish people and acknowledging Kurdish as a national language — for the first time since Syrian independence in 1946.
