Kurdish areas in Syria: no better than Assad?

Mask pelvis | According to Mohammed, at least five people killed the Kurdish Armed Forces of SDF four months ago in their hometown of Muscan. They would have shot up to six. The dead and injuries were unarmed, he emphasizes. Mohammed, a young man from a leather jacket with short hair, is actually called different. He does not want to see his name in a basin out of fear of repression.

In the small town of Maskan, 15,000 people, most Arabs, live many Bedouins. Various forces checked the city since the beginning of the Civil War in Syria in 2011. In December last year, the authorities were changed: after the lightning attack in the Ashrir Ashrir, Ashham Hayat Tahrir, who had previously controlled the Idlib region, captured most Syria and immersed dictator Bashar al-Assad. However, other troops went to Mascan – the armed forces of the Kurdish self -esteem in the future of the North -Vostok in Syria, called Syrian democratic forces (SDF).

“When the Kurdish armed forces entered this area, they stole, for example, from state institutions. We did nothing. But when they tried to confiscate the city water pump and a large furnace for baking bread, people were loud.

Some residents laid car tires over the highway. 29-year-old gestures outside, the ring flies on his finger in the sun. Two groups of men would stand in front of the oven and a water pump, thus preventing theft. Then they moved to the building, where SDF fighters settled. “Follow you, you do the same as Assad’s regime,” they would roar. Then the building was shot dead. Related Muhammads – 23 years, a student – is fatally found. Those who could run away in all directions. For two hours, the corpses were on the street, no one dared to collect them, says Mohammad.

The partner of the West is against

On December 9, the Catarian television company Al-Jazer reports “arguments between the inhabitants of Muscan and the SDF” and publishes a video on which you can see a video, mostly unarmed people. Some run on motorcycles, others call “leave!” Two hold the sticks in the hand, lift it into the air. Shooters can be heard in the background, again and again. In another post, the broadcaster writes that six civilians died from SDF balls.

SDF units are actually a good reputation: they should be liberal, women equal to women. Her contribution to the struggle with the “Islamic state” (from), a jihadist terrorist organization, which in some parts of Syria and Iraq caused a caliphate, was decisive. The United States and some EU countries support them military and financially. They built dedication in the north -eastern Syria. Being left on an alternative project in a conservative Arab world, you attracted attention around the world.

Nevertheless, in recent years there have been complaints about human rights, for example, in Kurdish prisons: the recent report by Amnesty International speaks of the “death and torture” of prisoners. SDF announced that they would pursue violations, but there were no complaints.

SDF has been busy – some since Assad, as in Muscan, some of which since his victory over the Arab villages and cities in Northern Syria. The inhabitants of Muscany are not the only ones who complain of the situation among the Kurdish administration. In other places, they also report a pelvis on the climate of fear, about unjustified persecution. But they are evading the publication, the fear of SDF is too big.

The same system?

Even before December 9, 2024, when the SDF arrived in Mascan, the city survived several changes in power: seven kilometers, when the raven flies, about 80 to the Syrian city of Aleppo about Lake Assad. Rakka, the former capital of the Islamic State, is 90 kilometers further to the east. A few years after the start of the Syrian Civil War, this region rejects this region – and, thus, also Mascan and the surrounding villages. Maskana became a stronghold of the Islamist. There they built a false state in which they prevailed with torture and dragon punishments in accordance with the principles of radicals-salafists. Only on June 3, 2017, after the days of siege and struggle in the surrounding villages, were the soldiers of the march of the Syrian government army in the Tanshi part of the masquean and retired in a small town.

In this city, which I saw so much, Mohammed is now in its small store and distributes orange juice in bottles on the shelves. He pulls out his smartphone from a jacket pocket, shows the image of a young man with sunglasses, a striped shirt and a white T -shirt. Then one more, from the same person. Emoji weighing this-12/9/2024. “A few weeks later, SDF went to every family of the deceased to give them $ 5,000. But we did not accept the money. “

He deleted the video event from his mobile phone. He is too afraid that the soldiers will find them in control: because if you want to enter the city, you will first have to transfer your checkpoint.

And you never know if you visit the police, regardless of whether you will interrogate. People sometimes spied each other, he says. “This is the same system as during the Assad regime,” Mohammad explains. According to him, the relative was taken into custody and beat there. “Many were arrested” – sometimes the pictures on the smartphone were already sufficient.

SDF contradicts the accusations

“I was in prison for 58 days,” says a man, wrapped in a traditional caftan who is currently making purchases in a small store. “From what you found on my mobile phone.” Other people in the store also complain: SDF soldiers with their families would take some empty houses. “SDF soldiers are now living in my uncle’s house,” says a teenager with a baseball cap.

Descriptions of the city’s inhabitants cannot be verified independently. The SDF press secretary rejected all charges on request. They were wrong and were based on “false testimonies and previous messages against Syrian democratic forces.” He also sends a link to the post from the Kurdish administration, which announces the garbage clearance campaign in Muscan and Deir -Ovs in January.

The lives of people in Muscan and the surrounding villages were probably never simple. The area is bad: dusty streets of red sand, lined with cubic buildings made of naked bricks, on which semi -profile columns are advanced to the throne. Men in Red KEFIYAH DRIVE on a moped are overloaded with a moped with bags and water tanks, and women covered with a veil carry children in their hands. The old Chevrolet and Scania Truck, the color of which can hardly be recognized, are booked through the streets. Sell ​​screaming merchants on the side of the road a little further, vegetables and other products that they demonstrate on plastic tarpaulins on the floor. An empty bus stop is sifted with bullet holes.

Hard life

At the entrance to the village, bordering with Maskana, an elderly woman sits in the dust on the side of the road, holding along a black veil through her mouth. “We do not have electricity, not at all,” says the mayor of Mukhtar, who only calls his name. He sits in a gray dressing gown and kefi on the carpet of his living room, which also serves as a bedroom at night. Matras fold on a bare wall. The separated cables of power cables look outside the plaster. You must wash everything manually, and at night it is very dark, says a young woman with a black veil sitting in the corner of the room. “Life conditions have not changed since Assad, life is as complex as before.”

After the incident of Assad and the struggle between the SDF and the Syrian National Army, supported by the Turkic, around the Euphrates, the situation worsened. Türkiye considers SDF as part of the prohibited RPK, which is classified as a terrorist organization, the Kurdistan working party. There are always air strikes. At the same time, there is an unofficial fragile calm between the two militias.

Kurdish forces are located on checkpoints before and after the city of Maskan – police and military. Some of them are simple small houses on the side of the road. Tver -shaped putty is especially long, a dozen vehicles are waiting for the sun, which is hot in the spring. Children pass by the car, hold boxes with snacks in front of the chest, which they sell to residents for several cents. Beducted women are sitting between suitcases in open zones of pickup loading, sheep lie together on a truck, their fur is inflated from the wind. Minutes pass. For a long time intentional, says the awaiting person – so that Turkish drones did not bomb him. This cannot be confirmed. But distrust is great.

There is already an agreement that SDF should integrate into the Syrian army. However, several points are still unclear. In Muscan, many now hope to live in freedom and peace.