Syrian government gives SDF members until February to return to civilian life

Syria's interior ministry has given members and affiliates of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) until the end of February to regularise their status and return to civilian life.

In a circular published on Monday, the ministry said registration centres in the governorates of Aleppo, Idlib, Deir az-Zour and Raqqa will no longer accept regularisation applications from the beginning of March.

The circular urged SDF members to visit the centres "before the deadline to regularise their status and obtain all the necessary documents to complete legal procedures, thus contributing to stability and security in the region as a whole".

Members of the militia group have been instructed to formally return to civilian life by handing over their weapons and relevant documents. Syrian authorities have warned of legal consequences for those who do not comply.

Amid moves to integrate former SDF members into the central government and its bodies, the co-chair of the Department of Foreign Relations in the Autonomous Administration, Ilham Ahmed, has said that the agreement with Damascus does not explicitly call for the dissolution of the Kurdish-led administration's institutions.

Ahmed insists that SDF-aligned bodies will continue to provide services within a new civil and administrative integration mechanism. She added that the goal is to maintain a degree of decentralisation within the unification plan.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ahmed said that the SDF had submitted candidates for the position of Syria's deputy defence minister, while SDF leader Mazloum Abdi has turned down a position in Syria's central government.

The latest developments follow the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Damascus and the SDF last month, which came after bloody clashes between the government and the Kurdish-led forces in the country's east and northeast.

As part of the deal, Syria's army is taking control of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah from the SDF, which will also integrate its forces into the regular army,

In separate developments, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani attended the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, where he appeared to deny that Syria's minority groups had been subjected to violence.

Speaking to US journalist Hadley Gamble on the sidelines of the conference, al-Shibani blamed the violence against minorities on non-state actors, following massacres during unrest last year in Druze and Alawite-majority towns and villages.

"There is no violence against minorities in Syria," the minister said. "No, it has never happened in the past," he added.

“There are problems with armed groups that are outside the law and outside the framework of the state,” he said.

The minister's remarks have raised concerns about Damascus' pledge to hold the perpetrators of violence to account, particularly in relation to the country's Druze and Kurdish-majority areas.

In March 2024, an assault by government forces and allied militias saw the killing of over a thousand Alawite civilians in Syria's coastal region. The government said the campaign was targeting an insurgency by loyalists of the deposed Assad regime who had killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians in a surprise revolt.

Violence also broke out in July, sparked by clashes between Arab Bedouin tribes and Druze militia groups in Suweida.

In May, Syria's government established the National Commission for Transitional Justice - a body tasked with holding human rights abusers to account and compensating victims. However, tensions remain high,with issues between the government and militias from the country's Alawite and Druze minorities remaining largely unresolved.

In January, the government carried out an assault on areas of east and northeastern Syria held by the SDF, amid a failure to implement a March agreement on the SDF's integration into the new administration.

The assault brought key areas held by the SDF under control, with the Kurdish-led group continuing to withdraw from areas of the country as part of the ceasefire deal.