Thousands of Syrian Kurds rallied in the northeast city of Qamishli on Sunday in a show of solidarity ahead of the implementation of a recent deal with the government.
Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached a comprehensive agreement on Friday to gradually integrate the SDF's military and civilian institutions into the state, after the group ceded territory to advancing government forces in recent weeks.
The developments have come as a blow to the SDF, who had sought to preserve their rule in large swathes of north and northeast Syria which they had seized in battles against the Islamic State group during Syria's civil war, backed by a US-led coalition.
In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the northeast, thousands of men, women and children filled the streets, according to an AFP correspondent, waving Kurdish flags and holding up pictures of fighters who were killed.
Student Barine Hamza, 18, said "we have come out for Kurdish unity".
"We are afraid of being betrayed because we do not trust this government," she said.
The text of the deal maintains an ongoing ceasefire and introduces a "gradual integration" of the SDF and its associated administrative institutions into the Syrian government.
It appeared to include some of the SDF's demands, such as establishing brigades of fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Kurdish-majority areas.
Most of the territory which the SDF lost to government forces in northeastern Syria was ethnically Arab, but it continues to control its Kurdish strongholds as well as the Arab-majority city of Hasakeh.
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi has said the deal would be implemented on the ground from Monday, with both sides to pull back from frontline positions in the Kurdish-held town of Kobane, and parts of the northeast.
He said a "limited internal security force" would enter parts of Hasakeh and Qamishli but that "no military forces will enter any Kurdish city or town".
Housewife Nourshana Mohammed, 40, said she attended the rally "to safeguard everything we have gained and preserve it".
"The presence of the SDF is important for us. It protects us Kurds and saved us" from IS, she said.
Many residents of Arab-majority cities such as Raqqa have expressed relief following the end of SDF rule, particularly after children who were held in jails by the group and reportedly tortured were freed.
Information Minister Hamza Mustafa told state media on Friday that the agreement included the handover of some oil fields, the Qamishli airport and border crossings to the government within 10 days.
He said SDF fighters would be integrated on an individual basis into several brigades being formed under the army's command.
The United States, which has drawn close to Syria's new authorities, recently said the purpose of its alliance with the SDF was largely over.