Shafaq News- Qamishli

The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, said Thursday that the merger of Kurdish civil and military institutions into Syria's state institutions is complete.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the centenary of Qamishli, a Kurdish-majority city in northeastern Syria, Abdi said the integration of the region's military, security and administrative bodies into the national state had concluded and that the Kurds were now entering a new phase.

Abdi added the Kurds had been a leading force in the fight against ISIS and, after Syria's conflict broke out in 2011, had built a self-administration with organized civil and military institutions.

The SDF and the Syrian government reached an agreement on January 29 to complete the integration of northeastern Syria's institutions into the state. Government forces entered Qamishli in early February under that deal, after deploying to al-Hasakah and the areas around Kobani (Ain al-Arab).

On August 16, Syrian lawmaker and member of the presidential team overseeing the SDF integration process, Mustafa Abdi, told Shafaq News that the integration had entered its final stages, with the SDF and People's Protection Units (YPG) potentially dissolved before the end of August.

Read more: Kurds in Syria: From marginalization to a defining political force