Syria's 'Negotiations' Clarified: Submit or Be Declared Military Zone
Al Jazeera reports the Syrian army has closed off Aleppo’s Kurdish areas, citing "violence following collapse of talks aimed at absorption of semiautonomous Kurdish forces by state institutions." This tidy phrasing glosses over the uncomfortable truth: for the Assad regime, 'negotiations' with autonomous groups often look suspiciously like ultimatums backed by military might. The context they
bury? The decades-long history of Syrian government oppression against its Kurdish minority, including denying citizenship and cultural rights, culminating in attempts to dismantle self-governance movements whenever convenient. One might wonder at the timing, too – just as international attention shifts elsewhere, the 'talks' collapse, and suddenly, military zones appear. Is this 'clash' really
about persistent violence, or is it the predictable result of a government reasserting control with force, dressed up as a failure of diplomacy? The 'absorption' model rarely ends well for the absorbed, particularly when the absorber is a state with a documented track record of human rights abuses.