Over 400 delegates from Kurdish regions gathered in Qamishli (Qamişlo), North and East Syria, on Saturday to strengthen political unity and outline a shared vision for a democratic Syria. The Rojava Kurdish Unity and Common Stance Conference, held in the city’s Azadî (Freedom) Park, marked a significant step towards coordinating Kurdish efforts within Syria and across borders, following months of dialogue among political groups.
The conference concluded with a declaration of results, read out by Foza Yûsif of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Mihemed İsmail of the Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS). It called for a decentralised Syria that recognises Kurdish rights within a pluralistic framework, rejecting centralised governance models like those before 2011. Participants agreed to form a joint Kurdish delegation to engage with Syria’s new government and other national forces, to secure constitutional guarantees for Kurdish rights, women’s freedoms and multi-ethnic governance.
“[The unity conference] aims to shape a new Syria where the rights of all communities are protected,” the declaration stated, highlighting the need for dialogue with Damascus.
The event follows the fall of Syria’s Baath regime on 8 December 2024, after Islamist rebels led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized control of Damascus. This development has created both risks and opportunities for Kurds, whose governance under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) is now under threat. The new HTS-influenced Syrian government has excluded the AANES from the country’s National Dialogue Conference, prompting widespread Kurdish condemnation over the lack of inclusivity of the process.
Kurds have historically been marginalised in Syria, and delegates viewed the collapse of Assad’s regime as a historic opportunity to address the Kurdish question. The unity conference built on 15 years of multi-ethnic governance in North and East Syria, where Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians have coexisted under AANES.
AANES’s co-chair of Foreign Relations Ilham Ahmed recently stressed that pre-2011 centralised models have become obsolete, reinforcing the conference’s push for decentralisation.
The conference also aimed to overcome longstanding intra-Kurdish divisions. Relations between the PYD, which leads the AANES, and the ENKS, traditionally backed by Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have been strained by disputes over governance models and relations with Turkey. However, warming ties, including Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi holding meetings with KDP leader Masoud Barzani and telephone calls with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) president Nechirvan Barzani in early 2025, reflect a growing Kurdish alignment, wich has been encouraged by US mediation.
Participants, including representatives from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party and Iraq’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), endorsed a draft agreement to consolidate political cooperation. Key figures like Mazloum Abdi highlighted the role of the conference in uniting Kurds while also strengthening Syria as a whole. Messages of support from the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), a coalition advocating democratic confederalism, and from Masoud Barzani, were acknowledged.
The conference dedicated its efforts to over 13,000 fighters who died in Syria’s conflict, invoking the legacy of historical Kurdish struggles such as the Kobanê Resistance. Organisers hope the joint delegation’s future talks with Damascus will secure Kurdish rights in a democratic Syria, fostering stability across the region.
Turkey’s renewed peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), initiated in late 2024, add another dimension to the broader impact of the conference. The talks, centred on imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, have raised hopes of resolving a 40-year conflict that has killed over 40,000 people, mainly Kurdish civilians. Öcalan has recently called for the PKK to disarm in exchange for a political rather than a military solution to Turkey’s Kurdish question.
The emphasis of the Qamishli conference on Öcalan’s ideology of democratic confederalism, particularly through the support of KCK and DEM Party representatives, aligns closely with the ideological underpinnings of the ongoing peace process in Turkey. A solidarity workshop held simultaneously in Diyarbakır, which referred to Öcalan’s 27 February call for Kurdish unity, further reinforced these cross-border connections.
The outcomes of the conference could profoundly reshape Kurdish prospects in Syria, provided that diplomatic efforts can overcome entrenched regional rivalries. By presenting a unified stance, Kurds hope to protect their gains and secure a democratic, decentralised future amid Syria’s volatile transition.
