Salam Ali

The living and the dead are coming home to Afrin as displaced families return with the remains of their loved ones, fulfilling a long-held wish to lay them to rest in their native soil.

As Damascus and the SDF inch towards integration, is northeastern Syria heading for unified state institutions, “complementary integration,” or a revival of divided influence?

Kurds in northeastern Syria are cautiously waiting to see what comes next as Damascus and the SDF take their first steps towards a fraught integration. 

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.