Sharaa issues decree recognizing Kurdish as 'national language'

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a decree Friday evening granting national rights to Syrian Kurds, notably officially recognizing the Kurdish language, all the while his army engages in combat with Kurdish forces belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north of the country and after ousting them from the city of Aleppo last week.

In the decree, Sharaa proclaims Kurdish a "national language," which can be taught in public schools in areas where this minority is strongly present.

The decree also establishes Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year celebrated on March 21, as an official public holiday, and grants citizenship to Kurds, about 20 percent of whom had been deprived of their citizenship following a controversial 1962 census.

"Syrian Kurdish citizens constitute an essential and genuine part of the Syrian people, and their cultural and linguistic identity is an integral part of Syrian national identity," the decree states.

The Kurds have suffered from decades of marginalization and oppression under previous regimes in Syria.

This minority took advantage of the chaos of the civil war (2011-2024) to seize vast territories in the north and northeast of Syria — including oil and gas fields — after defeating the extremist group Islamic State (IS) with the support of a multinational coalition.

Negotiations to implement an agreement signed in March 2025 between Damascus and the Kurds, aiming to integrate their civil and military institutions within the Syrian state, are currently at a standstill.

En plein conflit avec les Kurdes, le président syrien reconnaît leurs droits nationaux