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A ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government forces and forces loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the northeastern Hasaka province came into effect at 14:00 p.m. on August 23, the Syrian TV reported and Kurdish sources confirmed.
- The Hasaka-Qamishli road and those leading to the Syrian army positions inside and outside Hasaka city and all other roads will be opened;
- The injured, bodies of the martyrs and the captives on both sides will be exchanged at 9 p.m.;
- All areas recently captured by the YPG will remain under the control of the Kurdish police, Asayish;
- All Syrian army and National Defense Forces fighters withdraw from Hasakah;
- The Syrian police will guard the government buildings in the city and the “security square” in the center of the city;
- Further negotiations on the “Kurdish issies” are also agreed, according to the Syrian state TV.
Kurdish official Abdel Salam Ahmad noted that the ceasefire was reached following a meeting with “the Russians” in Hasakah.
In general, the agreement can be described as a kind of compromise between the Syrian government and the PYD (YPG and Asayish are its armed branches). The Syrian government remains in control of the city center and its troops are deployed in the military base near the city. In turn, the forces loyal to the Democratic Union Party (that de-facto won the armed struggle in the area) have not gained a full control of this strategic city.
The situation in Hasakah is also influenced by the complicated (first of all, for the YPG) situation in Aleppo and the recent ISIS advances on the YPG in the Hasakah province. If further talks do not achieve a realistic solution of the conflict between the Syrian government and the PYD, it’s easy to expect fresh escalations in Hasakah in coming months.
If I was a Syrian police officer guarding one of those govt buildings, I’d be sure to have my affairs in order. Once the ISIS attack is dealt with, I’d hate to be in their shoes.
The first think the SDF did in Manbij was to burn the Syrian government land-records office to erase records of Arab land ownership in the Manbij area and allow the PYD to seize it for themselves. The SDF initially tried to claim that ISIS started the fire, but it turns out that was a lie – it was after the building was in SDF control and started by them. Unbeknownst to the SDF, the former Syrian government officials moved the records to a safe location when ISIS occupied Manbij, so that land-theft scheme didn’t go as planned.
I can’t help but imagine the exact same thing was planned for Hasakah. Purge all the legitimate Syrian land records for Hasakah province and steal any unclaimed/disputed land for the profit of the PYD.
The victory of the SDF/YPG is coming. Assad should focus on fighting jihadists and not defending pockets surrounded by secular-democratic YPG.
Why does SouthFront recognize the SDF and use that term in the Manbij area operations, but very clearly avoids the use of that description in Hasakah? U.S. media purposely avoids mentioning the SDF in Hasakah because they don’t want U.S. citizens to know that the U.S. SF-trained, armed and coordinated SDF are attacking Syrian troops and militia on Syrian soil. Most of the SDF in Hasakah are probably YPG, but they are not acting independently of their SDF structure. It’s almost as if SouthFront is intentionally trying to hide U.S.-backed SDF involvement in the attack on the NDF and Syrian troops.
My guess is that they thought they were being more precise but the U.S. threat to shoot down Syrian / Russian aircraft based on ‘right to self defense’ makes this association as clear as a bell.
SDF is how the U.S. re-branded their FSA in Kurdish areas. The SDF IS the Kurdish FSA. This is evidenced by the SDF in Hasakah being mixed – there are still some Arabs and Christians in it. I think very few now because apparently many have quit and went over to the NDF, i.e, they thought the SDF was about fighting ISIS, but it turns out it was really about fighting the Syrian government just like the FSA.
This was the exact same mandate the FSA had: fight Assad (and ISIS) and if you can’t overthrow him, take over as much Syrian land as possible for the future partition of Syria. The Kurdish spin on the SDF is a red herring. It doesn’t matter if the ‘old’ FSA land-stealing scheme operates under a Kurdish banner or and SDF one. It is essentially (and always will be) a U.S.-backed military force designed to take Syrian oil, water and land from the Syrian people. That’s what the U.S. SF forces are training the SDF in Hasakah to do: be the FSA. That’s why a bunch of non-Kurds quit. I would love to know if local Kurds are deserting the SDF as well. Nearly everything we hear about Hasakah and Rojava is a U.S.-propagated lie.
Rojava is being created as an occupied land EXACTLY like they created Israel. Any unfortunate ‘minority’ (non-Kurd) indigenous residents like Arabs, Christians and Assyrians are being herded out of ethnically-cleansed cities like Hasakah into Palestinian-like concentration-camps in the desert. The Kurds will claim it’s not ethnically cleansing because it’s only ‘regime supporters’ (even though they are almost exclusively non-Kurds).
Hasakah may have been a SDF-NDF fight after all, but I want to know how many former Hasakah residents have been permanently driven from their homes and are starving out in the desert tonight. Are they SDF-sympathizers or Syrian-sympathizers? I suspect the latter.
Most Kurd leaders lack loyalty to their home country. Now , they are using the difficult situation in Syria and Iraq to their selfish advantage. They are relying on the west to achieve their goal. Last night the head of Kurdistan security during interview with western journalist , didn’t show the Iraqi flag , just Kurdistan flag. Their disloyalty is disgusting . I don’t blame Turkey and understand their rough treatment in the past.