AFRIN, Syria (AP) – A young Kurdish man, including members of a religious minority, recently signed up to join the general security forces of the Syrian government in Afrin, a region of the country where Kurds were forced out years ago.
The push to recruit ethnic and religious minorities comes as Damascus’ government faces an increase in scrutiny after an outbreak of sectarian violence, where there have been reports that the fighters to which the government belong have killed civilians and are spreading from humiliating civilians. Arawi people and Druze Denomination.
Not supported commission An investigation into violence on Syrian coasts recommended earlier this month that authorities should recruit from minority communities for a more “diverse security force composition” to improve community relations and trust.
Minorities are increasingly wary of new authorities in Damascus, led by former Sunni Muslim Muslim rebels who have defeated them President Bashar Assad in December After nearly 14 years of civil war.
The agreement between Damascus and Kurdish-led troops that controlled much of Syria’s northeastern part in March was also on the volatile ground.
I’m looking for a role in a new state
Kurdish Abbas Mohammad Hamoudha was one of the young men lined up at the recruitment centre in Afrin on Wednesday.
“I joined the new state with a young man from my district,” he said. “We will stand together, unite, and avoid problems and war from now on.”
The Kurds of Afrin “have been exposed to many people over the past eight years,” Hamouda added, “I hope that Afrin young people will not consider us badly because of this affiliation.”
Previously, the majority of Kurdish people, Afrin was seized by the Turkish military It followed a military operation backed by a turkey that allied Syrian opposition fighters in 2018, urkeys that ousted the Kurdish-led Syrian democrats and thousands of Kurdish civilian fighters out of the area.
Arabs who fled from other parts of Syria have since settled in the area, and the Kurds who remained have argued for discrimination against them.
Some hope that the recent will to recruit them to security forces indicates a shift towards more inclusion.
Malik Musa, a Yazidi Kurdish man who signed up, said he wanted him to be “part of the Syrian army and there is no discrimination.”
“We hope that there will be a new government for all, as we don’t have the oppression as we have in the past,” he said.
Ferhad Kurt, a government official responsible for political affairs in the Afrin district, said that around 1,000 young men have recently signed up to participate in the general security of the region from “all denominations, colours and doctrines.” He gave no breakdown of the demographics of the new recruits.
“This is the first step, there’s a strategy. The sons of Afrin can share it in all government agencies, not just in the internal security aspects, but also in private agencies,” he said.
When determining the number and percentage of minorities participating in security forces, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Nourededin Al Baba told The Associated Press that “ability and patriotism are the norms used, not sectarian allocation.”
Skepticism about government intentions
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Recruitment efforts have sparked skepticism in several quarters.
The Afrin Society Association, an initiative to provide assistance to those displaced from Afrin in the northeastern region, Kurdish-controlled northeast, said in a statement posted on Facebook that “we will protect the Afrin community and ensure the registration of some youths of the general security forces without ensuring biased and biased interests.”
The association accused authorities in Damascus of trying to avoid the March agreement, which demanded that displaced people return to their homes, including Afrin, and return to their homes along with the new government’s military and a Kurdish-led merger supported by the US. Syrian Democratic Army.
“In theory, recruitment could improve the situation for the Kurdish people in Afrin,” said Vladimir van Wilgenberg, an Iraq-based Kurdish affairs analyst.
“It also happens when Kurds will be appointed to the leadership position of Afrin’s security forces, and whether they will really speak out, and whether some Turkish-backed groups will return to their former regions, and some of the violations have been suspended,” he said.
A Kurdish man living in Afrin who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns said local people had mixed feelings about the recruitment.
They believe that if the authorities “are really serious about giving the former people in the region a role in Afrin,” then it will be positive, but they fear that Kurdish recruits will be “employed negatively” in the case of armed conflict between the state army and the SDF, he said.
Some Kurdish families are urging their sons because they want security forces to be seen as a career path for people who have no other options or to gain political benefits, the man said.
“I told him that a young man who worked as a barber and his grandfather forced him to go to the general safety and we had to affect the state,” he said.
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Sewell reported from Beirut.
