A week of clashes in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has led to the widespread displacement of Kurdish people from the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah. These are two Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo that have been largely self-governing for a decade and controlled by Kurdish security forces.
These forces are linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Syria, a group that has been backed by the United States to fight ISIS. After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, there was a year of talks trying to integrate the two Kurdish neighborhoods with the new Syrian governing authorities. Nevertheless, clashes have often resulted.
These clashes grew in the first days of 2026, and now Syrian security forces have taken over most of the Kurdish neighborhoods, causing many Kurds to flee and leading to abuses of Kurdish detainees.
Kurdish control: anomaly or reality?
The Syrian forces have often accused the Kurds of carrying out sniper attacks and maintaining their own area of control within a wider city that the government wants to control. In many ways, the Kurdish control of the neighborhoods was an anomaly, a feature of the Syrian state during the Syrian civil war when the state was weak, and the Assad regime had basically melted away from cities like Aleppo. Kurds took up arms because they had to, and they all wanted security.
However, the reality on the ground is not just two security forces chafing with each other. There is widespread animosity and racist hatred against Kurds in Syria.
In videos from the clashes, there have been scenes of a Kurdish body thrown off a building, a Kurdish woman fighter having her hair pulled and being insulted, and detained Kurds being called “pigs” and encouraged to bark like dogs. This is the kind of imagery typical of racist and fascist movements.
Some of the Syrian fighters are formerly members of extremist groups, and many of them blend a form of Islamist devotion with Arab nationalism. Some view the Kurds as sub-human and often accuse Kurdish fighters of being members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Because of Turkey’s influence over some of the Syrian Arab fighters, there is intense hatred of the PKK.
A series of ceasefires and agreements with the Syrian government between January 9 and 11 were supposed to reduce the fighting. However, many Kurds ended up being displaced. Some have been bused from Aleppo to eastern Syria, where the SDF is in control, arriving in Hasakeh. According to North Press in eastern Syria, the “Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces Mazloum Abdi announced on Saturday night that understandings had been reached leading to a ceasefire in the Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods of Aleppo city, northwestern Syria.”
Abdi said that international mediation helped halt attacks and violations against residents of Aleppo, resulting in an agreement that would secure a ceasefire and ensure the evacuation of the dead, the wounded, trapped civilians, and fighters from the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods to northeastern Syria.”
The report added that Abdi “called on the mediators to honor their commitments by ending violations and working to guarantee the safe return of displaced residents to their homes.”
Many countries have sought to end the violence in Aleppo.
France said that it deplored the resumption of clashes on January 11. Syria is worried about the perception that it is ethnically cleansing the Kurdish neighborhoods. The Syrian Foreign Ministry referred to a “limited and targeted law-enforcement operation.” Nevertheless, the images of Kurdish men being detained by the Syrian forces and reports of at least one of them being murdered have spread fear among people.
According to Kurdish media outlet Rudaw, “US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack on Saturday met with the Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, discussing the ongoing clashes between the Kurdish fighters and the Syrian Arab Army in Aleppo.”
In the past, Barrack has appeared to reject federalism as a model for Syria. The Syrian government has appeared emboldened to act in Aleppo.
In March 2024, Syria’s new government had agreed to a deal with SDF leader Abdi about integrating forces. However, the clashes in Aleppo show how hard this is. Now that Kurds have suffered displacement in Aleppo, the SDF will be even more suspicious of integration efforts.
According to Syrian state media, the people leaving Aleppo are not civilians but SDF members. “Buses carrying the final group of SDF organization elements departed shortly after midnight on Saturday from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in Aleppo toward northeastern Syria,” a SANA reporter in the city said.
“The departure marked the end of the SDF organization’s escalation in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo against residential areas. The Syrian Arab Army announced on Saturday the end of all military operations in the two neighborhoods, stating that SDF militants entrenched in Yassin Hospital would be transferred to the city of al-Tabqa in northeastern Syria, and that their weapons would be confiscated,” the report noted.
“The statement added that the Army would begin handing over health and government facilities in the neighborhood to state institutions and would gradually withdraw its forces from the streets of Sheikh Maqsoud.”
The end of Kurdish self-rule in Aleppo may be a blow to coexistence efforts. Syria will now need to show it has not displaced this minority community as a result of the fighting.