With dust still rising from the roads of Aleppo and the echoes of resistance heard through the streets of Kobani (Kobanê) and now Qamishli (Qamishlo), journalist and Kurdistan expert Fréderike Geerdink reports directly from the field. Her journey across northern Syria brings stories that rarely reach international headlines, but reveal a region in fierce defence of its hard-won autonomy. From interviews with local residents and activists to observations made at strategic locations such as the Tishreen (Tişrîn) Dam, Geerdink’s dispatches offer rare insight into the everyday struggles and political manoeuvres shaping North and East Syria – known as Rojava – today. Amid the backdrop of ongoing Turkish aggression, shifting alliances with Damascus, and persistent grassroots mobilisation, this special report captures a community that, despite trauma and uncertainty, continues to push for dignity, security, and a future on its own terms.
Fréderike Geerdink
In Rojava, Kurds struggle to protect their achievements
In the city centre of Kobani (Kobanê), a Kurdish city in the north of Syria, a man in a wheelchair is sitting by a table where signatures are being collected. Many passers-by sign the petition, which calls on the self administration to do everything in its power to protect the Alawite community in Syria against blood thirsty gangs. In this violence, already hundreds of Alawites were killed. The self administration, the signature collectors say, must keep pressuring the interim-government in Damascus to safeguard all Syrian communities.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous because he is travelling to Damascus regularly for medical treatment, recalls how two years ago he lost both his legs, one arm and most of his hearing in a Turkish drone attack on the local martyrs graveyard. Despite his disabilities, he has remained an activist. Recently, he was part of a group of civilians who try to stop Turkish violence at the Tishreen (Tişrîn) Dam with their mere presence.
There he found himself again with Turkish drones flying over his head. Didn’t he panic? “No. I just took out my hearing device, so I couldn’t hear them. Then the scene becomes kind of a movie.”
Tishreen Dam, spanning the Euphrates river, had been the scene of confrontations between the Kurdish-lead Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) since the fall of Assad. With Turkish air support, the SNA tied to capture the dam. The SDF defended itself, supported by civilians as human shields. Turkey killed two dozen of those human shields.
The Syrian interim-president Al-Sharaa, Turkish president Erdoğan hoped, would surely support Turkey’s goal to end the autonomy of the Kurds. And if Trump would then decide to withdraw US troops from the country, Turkey could advance to Kobani and further eastwards after taking the dam. Then the Kurdish experiment would be over.
Sanctions
But Al-Sharaa chooses his own path. Balances his foreign policy. Doesn’t rely solely on Turkey. Strives for domestic stability to get rid off the international sanctions. SDF General Commander Abdi smartly uses that. The two already secured deals to integrate the SDF into the Syrian army (which should be concluded by the end of the year, but there are many pitfalls before this can actually happen), and to jointly secure two Kurdish neighbourhoods in Aleppo.
A visit to one of those neighbourhoods, Sheikh Maqsood, and an interview with the local internal security forces, clearly shows the importance of the accord.
One of the residents said, while climbing up a rather steep street: “Also here, the mountains are the Kurds’ friends.” What he meant was not only that in the ancient bustling city of Aleppo, the Kurds live in the hilly parts.
At the end of the street, a wide view over the city unfolded, the mighty citadel visible in the distance. Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh, the other Kurdish neighbourhood, are very strategically placed. Whoever has control here, has a seat at the table.
Checkpoints
The SDF left the neighbourhoods as part of the deal, but the internal security forces (Asayish) took over their task. The joint checkpoints of the Asayish and the Damascus-tied forces, are outside the neighbourhoods. The women Asayish responsible for the checkpoints, said in an interview: “Currently, there are no women working at the joint checkpoints, even though for us this is important. But in time, this will change. We will educate them indirectly and then they will accept it.” She added that it evolved like this in Shehba as well, close to Afrin, when there were shared checkpoints with the Assad regime: initially no women, in time that changed.
And now there is the Tishreen Dam: it will be placed under the joint control of the Autonomous Administration and Damascus. The Turkish violence stopped.
On Friday, Commander Abdi made a walk on the dam. With US protection – without it, he may have been hit by a Turkish drone. In the press conference afterwards, he said: “In today’s Syria we solve our differences via dialogue.”
Hopefully the Alawites will benefit from that too.
Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Bluesky (or X) or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
