Francesca Maria Lorenzini

What happens to Syria’s Kurds when the West stops seeing them as indispensable?

For nearly a decade, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were central to the U.S.-led fight against ISIS. They controlled large swaths of northeastern Syria under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (ANES) and managed prisons holding thousands of suspected fighters. Their battlefield role gave them political leverage, but that leverage is disappearing fast.

Western priorities are shifting and the political space that allowed Kurdish self-administration is closing.

This isn’t new. As Simone Gavazzi explains, Kurdish political gains have always been fragile: since the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne drew borders without a Kurdish state, opportunities have emerged during crises, and contracted once central authorities reasserted control. The Syrian war was one of those rare openings.

The SDF’s partnership with Washington helped defeat ISIS, but it never guaranteed long-term autonomy. With the international focus fading and diplomacy reopening with Damascus, Kurdish authorities face urgent choices about integration, military command, and governance.

Security adds pressure. Detention camps holding ISIS suspects and their families remain volatile. Managing them requires resources and political backing that may not last.

Kurdish politics is divided. Some leaders want to preserve cultural rights and limited autonomy within a unified Syria. Others insist that scaling back now risks repeating a century of reversals.

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