{"id":87449,"date":"2026-04-28T12:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/87449\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:02:09","slug":"syria-on-plans-for-separate-kurdish-military-unit-in-afrin-recruitment-is-voluntary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/87449\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria on plans for separate Kurdish military unit in Afrin: recruitment is voluntary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                            2026-04-28T11:14:14+00:00<\/p>\n<p>                                    font<\/p>\n<p>                                            Enable Reading Mode<\/p>\n<p>\n                                        A-<br \/>\n                                        A<br \/>\n                                        A+\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>Shafaq News- Damascus<\/p>\n<p>Syria&#8217;s deputy defense minister for the eastern<br \/>\nregion denied Tuesday that a separate Kurdish military structure is being<br \/>\nestablished in Afrin, stating that recruitment of Kurdish youth into the Syrian<br \/>\nArab Army remains voluntary and on an individual basis.<\/p>\n<p>Brigadier General Samer Awso \u2014also known by his<br \/>\nKurdish name Sipan Hamo\u2014 said discussions underway concern opening enlistment<br \/>\nto Kurdish youth from Afrin and Kurdish residents of Al-Hasakah province, not<br \/>\nthe creation of an autonomous military body. Any recruits, he said, would be<br \/>\nabsorbed into existing army formations rather than organized into a distinct<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/shafaq.com\/en\/Middle-East\/ENKS-and-SDF-strategize-on-Kurdish-role-in-Syria-s-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">unit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Awso is a founding member of the People&#8217;s<br \/>\nProtection Units (YPG), the Kurdish force that formed the military backbone of<br \/>\nthe Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the primary armed group controlling<br \/>\nnortheastern Syria under a semi-autonomous administration. He was appointed to<br \/>\nhis current post earlier this year as part of confidence-building measures<br \/>\nfollowing a January integration agreement between Damascus and the SDF.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/shafaq.com\/en\/Middle-East\/Syrian-forces-to-deploy-in-Hasakah-Qamishli-under-SDF-Damascus-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">agreement<\/a>, reached on January 30 after weeks<br \/>\nof fighting in which Syrian government forces seized large swaths of SDF-held<br \/>\nterritory in the northeast, requires the full integration of SDF forces and<br \/>\ninstitutions into the defense and interior ministries. It also covers the<br \/>\nreturn of displaced populations and the handover of strategic assets, including<br \/>\noil fields and airports.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmad al-Hilali, spokesman for the presidential<br \/>\nteam overseeing the process, said a high-level meeting was held in Aleppo<br \/>\nprovince on April 15 covering two core files: the return of displaced persons,<br \/>\nand the modalities of integrating the SDF into Syrian state institutions.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting followed a Damascus encounter on<br \/>\nApril 14 between Syrian transitional President\u00a0Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum<br \/>\nAbdi, attended also by senior Kurdish political figure Ilham Ahmed, Foreign<br \/>\nMinister Asaad al-Shaibani, and the presidential envoy. Al-Hilali said the<br \/>\ntalks reaffirmed that integration is a national sovereignty track to be pursued<br \/>\nwithin state institutions and in a manner that preserves Syria&#8217;s territorial<br \/>\nunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-04-28T11:14:14+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Damascus Syria&#8217;s deputy defense minister for the eastern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[6167,152,2667,95,31065],"class_list":{"0":"post-87449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-afrin","9":"tag-breaking","10":"tag-sdf","11":"tag-syria","12":"tag-syria-on-plans-for-separate-kurdish-military-unit-in-afrin-recruitment-is-voluntary"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116482234294072883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}