Kurds in the new Syria want to preserve the cultural rights they gained in years of war

QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — Kurds in Syria were marginalized during five decades of Assad family rule, with many denied citizenship and wrongly described as Arabs. Now they are seizing the chance during the post-Assad transition to keep the cultural gains they made in the northeast enclave they carved out during the country's civil war.

Mothers can now give children Kurdish names. The Kurdish language is taught in schools. The new year, Nowruz, can be celebrated openly. The Kurds, one of the world’s largest populations without a state of their own, have been feeling some control over their lives and want to make that permanent with a new government in power.

But that depends on Syria’s new leaders, and the outcome of an ongoing conflict between the Kurds and Turkish-backed rebels that’s been overshadowed by the dramatic shift from Assad rule. Two months of fighting have left scores dead on both sides.

“We have made all these gains. There is no way we will abandon them, even over our bodies and the bodies of our children,” said Amira Ali, a Kurdish woman from the northeastern city of Hassakeh whose husband is a member of the local police force known as, “Asayish," the Kurdish term for security.

Shortly after the uprising against the Assad government began in 2011, the Kurds filled the vacuum created by the withdrawal of government forces from wide areas of Syria's northeast. The main Kurdish-led force now controls about 25% of Syria. An autonomous authority runs day-to-day affairs of the region that many Kurds call “Rojava Kurdistan,” or “western Kurdistan.”

Now Kurdish leaders are negotiating with the new authorities in Damascus on the future of their people, who made up 10% of the country’s prewar population. They don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament; they want decentralization, room to run their day-to day-affairs.

The new authorities, however, are allied with the Turkish-backed armed groups that launched an offensive against the Kurds in December during the chaos around Assad’s fall. The fighting between the Kurds and the coalition known as the Syrian National Army has forced about 100,000 people to flee their homes.

The conflict has major implications for Syria’s future as its new government, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham former Islamist rebel group, tries to consolidate control and begin rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war.

Mazloum Abdi, commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force, said the country should be a secular, civil and decentralized state that treats all citizens equally. Western countries have called on Syria's new rulers to respect minorities and women's rights.

Abdi recalled the Syrian identity cards that described all its citizens as “Syrian Arab citizens,” including non-Arabs like the Kurds. They want it to be changed to “Syrian citizens.”

“Kurds were persecuted by previous authorities,” he said. He wants anti-Kurd laws to be abolished.

Abdi and others point out that the Kurds played an important role in defeating the Islamic State group as it rampaged across Syria and neighboring Iraq for years during Syria’s civil war.

The Kurdish-led SDF was formed to fight the extremists, and in 2019, SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land they held, the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz. The SDF and other members of the U.S.-led coalition continue the fight against IS sleeper cells.

The SDF lost thousands of its members in fighting IS, as well as against the armed factions backed by Turkey. Ankara regards the SDF as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a Kurdish separatist militant group it has designated a terrorist organization.

Turkey has launched four incursions into northern Syria since 2016, capturing wide areas along its borders and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. It is not clear whether those incursions will stop after Assad's fall.

The streets in northeast Syria are decorated with photographs of fallen Kurdish fighters.

“God willing, the blood of these martyrs will not be wasted,” said Amina Hussein, 57, as she lit incense on the grave of her son Dersim Sheikhi, killed in 2015 while fighting IS.

“Kurds have achieved a lot, and we should preserve this,” she said on a cold morning in the SDF’s Martyrs Cemetery, where hundreds of men and women are buried.

The offensive by the Turkish-backed armed groups is the latest challenge to Kurdish gains.

The 70-year-old Goulieh Abdu has been displaced twice in the past two months by the fighting. Now she shelters in a compound once run by forces loyal to Assad after SNA shelling forced her to flee to the city of Qamishli.

“I swear to God that displacement has killed us,” Abdu said, sitting on a mattress next to a diesel heater on a cold January morning. “What did we do to be punished this way?”

Another woman, Elham Horo, fled Tel Rifaat with her children and grandchildren in the SNA offensive.

“All what we have left is our souls. If they want to take it, then let them do it,” Horo said as she sat with her grandchildren on the floor of a classroom in Qamishli now used as a shelter for the displaced.

In Tel Rifaat, now seized by the SNA, its fighters blamed Kurdish gunmen for displacing Arabs from the town over the years. Arab residents said they could now return to their homes.

“They left us nothing,” said resident Muhammad Kabso, 42, who said he returned home to find that the Kurd who had been living there had burned his cherished olive and pomegranate trees.

Both the SDF and the authorities in Damascus have been sending positive signals about their talks on the future of Syria's northeast and the Kurds. Authorities have said the Kurds were unjustly treated under Assad.

“We will work together to build a country in which everyone feels equality and justice,” Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani recently posted on X — in Kurdish.

Associated Press journalist Ghaith Alsayed contributed to this report from Tel Rifaat, Syria.

Muhammad Kabso, 42, shows damaged tools left behind by the Kurds who had been living in his house in the town of Tel Rifaat in the northern Aleppo countryside, Syria, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Internally displaced woman Elham Horo, right, and her family take shelter at an old school in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, which is controlled by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Women march during a rally to mark the 2019 killing of Kurdish politician Hevreen Khalaf by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A Syrian Democratic Forces member stands guard in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Men play cards at a coffee shop in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, which is controlled by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A picture Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of Turkey's banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is displayed inside a petrol station in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces pose for a portrait at a checkpoint in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

An internally displaced person cleans the hallway of an old school used as temporary shelter in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, which is controlled by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

People stroll through a local market in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, which is controlled by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Families enjoy an amusement park in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, which is controlled by the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A U.S. military convoy drives along a road in northeastern Syria's Hasakeh province, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Goulieh Adbu, 70, who is internally displaced, poses for a portrait at an old school used as a temporary shelter in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, which is controlled by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A damaged poster of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad hangs on the facade of a building in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, which is controlled by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A boy holds a photo of Zuhdi Saffan, a Syrian Democratic Forces fighter killed by a Turkish-backed militia, during the funeral of four Syrian Democratic Forces fighters in the village of Daoudiya in northeastern Syria's Hassakeh province, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A Syrian Democratic Forces fighter secures the road leading to the cemetery during the funeral of his comrades in northeastern the village of Daoudiya, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Women comfort a relative of Ibrahim al-Hamad, who was killed by a Turkish-backed militia, during the funeral of four Syrian Democratic Forces fighters in northeastern the village of Daoudiya, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)