Syrian President Ahmed al-Shar’a has issued a decree officially recognizing Kurdish as the “national language” and granting citizenship to all Kurdish Syrians.
Al-Shara’s decree came Friday after fierce clashes last week in the northern city of Aleppo, which left at least 23 people dead and forced thousands to flee two Kurdish-run pockets of the city, according to Syria’s health ministry.
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The conflict ended after the Kurdish fighters retreated and the Syrian army took full control of the city of Deir Hafar in the governorate of Aleppo.
The violence in Aleppo has deepened key fault lines in Syria, where al-Shara promised to unify the country under one leadership after 14 years of war against former President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December 2024.
The decree grants Kurdish Syrian rights for the first time, including recognition of Kurdish identity as part of Syria’s national fabric. It designates Kurdish as the national language alongside Arabic and allows schools to teach it.
It also repeals measures related to the 1962 census in Hasaka province that stripped many Kurds of Syrian nationality, granting citizenship to all affected residents, including those previously registered as stateless.
The decree declares Newroz, the spring and New Year festival, a paid national holiday. It bans racial or linguistic discrimination, requires state institutions to adopt an inclusive national message, and sets penalties for inciting ethnic conflict.
Reacting to the decree, the Kurdish administration in Syria’s north and northeast said the decree was “a first step, however it does not fulfill the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people”.
It further states that “rights are not protected by temporary decrees, but by … permanent constitutions expressing the will of the people and all elements of society”.
The army took control of Deir Hafer
Meanwhile, Syrian forces took control of the town of Deir Hafar outside Aleppo on Saturday, after Kurdish forces agreed to withdraw from the area following recent clashes.
In a statement to state television, the army said it had established “full military control” over Deir Hafar and other areas held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo’s governorate.
The troops entered Der Hafer after the SDF announced it had begun withdrawing from its strongholds in the city.
Al Jazeera’s Zain Basrawi reported on Saturday from Zalanah, east of Aleppo, on the way to Deir Hafar, that Syrian forces, which had been building up around Deir Hafar for days, had begun to enter the city.
“And what we are likely to see in the next hours and days are clearing operations,” he said.
“In many ways, this is really the best-case scenario – a short, sharp military operation overnight and then securing an agreement to withdraw from the SDF in daylight and then trying to clear the area now,” Basrawi added.
SDF leader Majlum Abdi (also known as Majlum Kobani) announced on Friday X that “based on calls from allies and mediators … we have decided to withdraw our forces tomorrow at 7 am (04:00 GMT)” east of Aleppo “to redeploy to the east of the Euphrates”.
power struggle
After the ousting of Al-Assad, the Syrian government has been trying to expand its authority across the country.
The SDF controls Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during the country’s civil war and the decade-long battle against the ISIL (ISIS) group — a war the SDF has fought as a key regional ally of the United States.
The Syrian government and SDF engaged in months of talks last year to integrate the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its political wing, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) into Syrian state institutions by the end of 2025, but little progress was made, eventually leading to fighting in Aleppo.
Millions of Kurds live in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey, with an estimated one to 1.5 million living in northeastern Syria, controlled by the SDF.
Ankara, the Syrian government’s main ally, considers the SDF, YPG and PYD to be “terrorist groups” linked to Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decade-long battle inside the country against the state, killing thousands.