Over the past week, several Arab tribes have set up a “war tent” and begun circulating calls for action against Kurds.
The Arab tribes are calling on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to lay down their arms, and they claim that Arabs should be able to return to the lands that some fled during the last decade and a half of conflict. The rhetoric of the tribal members at the “war tent,” including photos of armed men gathering, has led to the Kurds also seeking to mobilize to protect their communities.
The crisis could spill over if the Syrian government does not move quickly to reduce tensions. This has hallmarks of previous cycles of violence in Syria. In the past, the mobilization of Arab tribal groups, such as Bedouin, has led to attacks on minorities, such as the Druze.
There has been friction between Arab tribes in the Euphrates valley, Raqqah, and Hasakah for many years. The tribes mostly avoided joining the Kurdish-led SDF. Their conservative views clashed with the ideology of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the AANES authorities, who ran much of eastern Syria over the last decade.
SDF to integrate with Syrian security
In January, the SDF agreed to integrate with the new Syrian security forces. The US, which backed the SDF against ISIS, has supported this process. However, Arab tribal groups have often chafed under rule by Damascus and others. Some of the tribes have ties to tribes in Iraq or to Turkey, and they generally seek to have sway over their own areas.
According to the Kurdish media network Rudaw, “Arab tribal fighters from eastern Syria have erected a ‘War Tent’ near Hasakah city, with some threatening to kill Kurds and end Rojava’s administration of northeast Syria. The government is reportedly working to calm the situation.”
The report added that “fighters from several Arab tribes gathered near the Kurdish city of Hasakah on Thursday, initially demanding better services. Their demands later escalated to calls for an end to the Rojava administration and the return of government forces to the region.
“They subsequently named the encampment the ‘War Tent,’ and footage circulating on social media shows some fighters threatening to kill Kurds.”
Apparently, a delegation from Damascus has sought to reduce the tensions. Qamishli district mayor Jihan Hussam also met this delegation, Rudaw noted: “Qamishli, located in Hasaka province, is widely seen as Rojava’s de facto capital.” Rojava is the Kurdish name for eastern Syria.
“Syria today is in greater need of a tent that brings its people together around dialogue than of trenches that deepen division. Nations are built through dialogue, and their unity is preserved through consensus; confrontation yields nothing but more pain, and gives those lying in wait for the homeland a chance to achieve what they have failed to achieve by other means,” Abdul Hakim Bashar, a Kurdish member of Syria’s newly formed interim parliament, wrote on Facebook, Rudaw noted.
Syrian tribes often clash on politics
Tribal politics is not a simple story in the Euphrates valley or eastern and central Syria. There are numerous tribes, and they don’t all agree. The Shammar Tribe, for instance, worked with the SDF and fought ISIS. Other tribes were massacred by ISIS, while some tribes either worked with them or with the former Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Each tribe has its own interests and will seek to advance them in different ways. Today, it appears they feel a power vacuum has developed and some want to threaten the SDF and challenge the government.
The SDF is integrating into the new Syrian security forces. However, the tribes seem to want all Kurdish members who were with the SDF or internal Asayish to lay down their arms, or at least be kept out of areas where the tribes are.
However, this inevitably leads to a clash over who will dominate these diverse areas of Syria, with Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and other groups. There are also large tribes and clans on both sides.
Many of the tribes continue to be armed with small arms, such as AK-47s. In addition, there are many arms among the Kurdish fighters who served with the SDF and Asayish of the former AANES.