The US should support the recently-postponed municipal elections set to be held by the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), researcher Amy Austin Holmes has argued, in order to enable the region to continue strengthening Syrian democracy through women’s participation.
“Instead of telling Syrian women and men not to hold elections, the [US] State Department should explain to [Turkish President] Erdoğan that elections are not a threat to Turkey,” Holmes argued based on her extensive research on the ground in North and East Syria (NES). “If the Biden administration is truly committed to the idea that “democracy delivers,” as outlined in [its] National Security Strategy, then this should be true in northeast Syria, as elsewhere around the world.”
The proposed elections have been postponed from 11 June until August. The officially stated reason was that participating parties requested more time to ensure democratic processes were upheld. However, it has been speculated that the delay was prompted by objections recently made by the US, who alleged insufficient standards were in place for “free and fair elections” as specified in UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
The US is allied with the AANES’ military wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Global Coalition Against ISIS, yet refuses to respect the administration’s political legitimacy. Pressure on the AANES over the mooted elections has been exacerbated by Turkish military offensives, culminating in warnings that the AANES would come under direct military attack should the elections take place.
Writing for the Wilson Centre, Holmes drew on her statistical research assessing the extent and impact of women’s participation in political life under the AANES to argue that the US’ opposition to the elections was short-sighted and set to imperil regional stability while empowering the US’ rivals in Iran and Russia, who are dominant in other regions of Syria.
As Holmes explains, while Syria as a whole is consistently ranked as one of the world’s worst places to be a woman, remarkably then over half (52.6%) of AANES employees are women. The region has used its decade of autonomy to “implement wide-ranging reforms to improve women’s status, including penalising domestic violence, outlawing polygamy, integrating women in security forces, and establishing a co-chair system where men and women share power at all levels of government,” Holmes explains.
She notes further research demonstrating that women’s participation in politics “advances national and human security and improves service provision,” and has “even been linked to preventing conflict relapse.” Observations Holmes made from on the ground likewise indicate that “many Syrians are understandably proud of the role women played in defeating ISIS alongside their male counterparts. And they see the AANES, even with its imperfections, as a better alternative to rule by the Assad regime or extremists.”
As such, Holmes argues that the US could best achieve its regional objectives by advocating for and supporting “free and fair” elections in the region, where the US military maintains a small presence. She offers concrete proposals to help the AANES strengthen its democratic process, rather than refusing to acknowledge the elections outright, arguing that the US could “provide technical assistance for the municipalities holding elections, advise women who seek to run for office, and send observers to monitor the election process.”
All of this will necessarily mean the US taking a stronger stance against Turkey, which opposed the elections with airstrikes against a Kurdish Red Crescent ambulance, among other targets, killing four people. Rather than allowing Turkey to undermine the democratic process in AANES-held regions, the US must use its regional influence to facilitate and strengthen this process, Holmes concludes.
