Salam Ali

Long-suppressed by the Assad regime, the Kurdish language underwent an educational and cultural revival in Syria over the past decade. In the new Syria, its speakers refuse to lose ground and are fighting for recognition. 

Returns to Afrin increased following agreements between the SDF and Damascus, with some villages seeing more than 80 percent of their displaced Kurdish residents return. Others are waiting for an organized return with security guarantees. 

Little has changed for Afrin’s Kurds, despite Damascus’ security forces entering on February 7. Violations persist, with returnees finding fighters or civilians occupying their homes and demanding hundreds of dollars to leave. 

Around 25,000 people have returned to Darayya, just south of Damascus, since the regime fell. Destruction and a worsening housing crisis prevents the return of others to the battered city, home to 350,000 people before 2011. 

Twenty people were killed and injured when an AANES-sponsored protest convoy approached an area of active fighting around Syria’s Tishreen Dam on Wednesday and was targeted by Turkish aircraft. What happened, and why?

Since Turkish-backed factions took control of northern Aleppo at the start of December, more than 70,000 displaced people have returned to Afrin and its countryside, while others fled to northeastern Syria fearing abuses. 

Longstanding disputes between the two largest Syrian Kurdish political blocs stymie efforts to form a unified political vision and send a delegation to negotiate with the transitional government in Damascus.

Kurdish and Arab residents of northeastern Syria described joy at the fall of the Assad regime, while views of the new authorities in Damascus and the future of SDF-held areas range from optimism to trepidation.  

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) estimates 120,000 people have been displaced from areas of northern Aleppo captured by Turkish-backed opposition factions this week.

Countryside roads in SDF-controlled northeastern Syria are a hunting ground for armed robbers targeting civilians and humanitarian workers. Repeated security incidents limit residents’ freedom of movement and cut into organizations’ limited funding.