Earlier this month the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) held a joint meeting to address strategic policy in North East Syria.
The three groups form the backbone of the structure of the democratic project in the region, and work together in concert. All three of these bodies represent a coalition of ethnic groups, religions, and political parties that reflect the diversity of northern and eastern Syria. The SDF, a coalition of military forces, provides security to the region in collaboration with the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The AANES is the civilian executive body in charge of governance of the region. The Syrian Democratic council is a coalition of individuals, political parties, and concerned groups from across Syria that views the AANES democratic project as a solution to the Syrian crisis for the region as a whole.
The meeting centered around three long-standing objectives for the democratic project in the region: finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis, maintaining regional security and stability, and promoting prosperity and development across various sectors.
All of these goals face huge challenges, and are all intertwined. In comparison to the other regions in Syria, the region governed by the AANES experiences far higher levels of security, human rights, and rule of law. It has the most stable economic conditions in the country, and sees a net influx of internally displaced people from other regions of Syria. It is still, however, a region suffering from the human, political, and material effects of over a decade of war, while trying to build up sustainable governance systems. It does not receive any discernible international support in such efforts, despite representing five million Syrians, and being the only democratic region on the ground in the country. One of the questions facing the bodies at the meeting this month was to discern how to change this international calculus and expand relations with the international community to bring about more collaboration with and recognition of the AANES project as integral to a solution for the Syrian crisis.
The security situation in the region is also once again escalating. ISIS attacks in the past months have for the first time since the territorial defeat of the caliphate, returned to Qamishli and Heske, in the north of the region controlled by the SDF. Iran also launched a campaign against US troops in the region, killing four American soldiers. While the SDF controls a force of almost 100,000, many of whom are battle-hardened, they are vulnerable to attacks primarily from ISIS and Turkey in the event of a US withdrawal. The meeting also focused on discussion of strategic policy and diplomatic goals in light of the shifting security landscape.
Despite the difficult and uncertain situation, the meeting was also a confirmation of the strength of the institutions that the project in north and east Syria is building in spite of and perhaps because of the crisis. As stated by the officials present, it is proof that “a coalition of Arabs, Kurds, Christians, Armenians, Turkmen, Muslims, and Yazidis” is possible in Syria. This is something that would have been difficult to imagine fifteen years ago in Syria, when speaking minority languages was punishable with prison and torture, and the country was under the longest state-imposed martial law in history.