Fuel protests and integration strains test Syria's Kurdish northeast

Hundreds of oil tanker trucks were left stranded in northeastern Syria on Wednesday after demonstrators blocked a major highway near the town of Tal Tamr, the latest sign of unrest in the Kurdish region as Damascus presses ahead with integrating a once-powerful Kurdish-led force into the national army.

The protesters shut the M4 highway, halting trucks carrying oil from the Qamishli and Rmeilan fields, and said the route would stay closed until recent fuel price increases are reversed. The government raised gasoline prices by about 30% and diesel by 40% on Sunday, citing higher global fuel costs linked to the U.S.-Iran war and repair work at the Baniyas refinery on the coast.

Fuel had long been heavily subsidized in the northeast while the region and its oil fields were under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The removal of those subsidies after the central government took over jolted residents, and the latest increase deepened the strain.

The unrest comes as the integration agreement between the SDF leadership and Damascus moves forward. The deal, reached in January, halted weeks of fighting and has been widely seen as a victory for interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, but its implementation is testing his ability to consolidate authority over a country emerging from 14 years of conflict.

Kurds, who made up roughly 10% of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million, were long marginalized under the Assad dynasty and carved out a de facto autonomous zone during the war. With the new government reasserting control, many Kurdish communities fear losing rights they enjoyed under self-rule.

Students in Qamishli and Hassakeh have staged mass protests in recent weeks over a decree that makes Kurdish an official language of instruction for the first time, but provides for only three classes a week in the language. Kurdish was banned in schools under former President Bashar Assad, while SDF-affiliated authorities ran a school system taught mostly in Kurdish during the war.

Anger deepened after a Kurdish former SDF fighter who had joined the Syrian army under the integration deal was abducted and killed by a group of Arab men in Hassakeh earlier this month. In Kobani, prisoners rioted in a jail, igniting a fire that killed nine detainees. Former SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, now an adviser to al-Sharaa, travelled to the city for the funeral and tried to calm the anger.

"There is an outburst of tension among the people here," said Masoud Bouzi, a Kobani resident, as shops closed for a day of mourning on Sunday. "This discontent will have a negative impact on the ongoing process here, the integration process — and it already has."

Another dispute concerns the all-women units of the now-dissolved SDF. The Women's Protection Units, or YPJ, played a major role in the fight against the Islamic State in the northeast, but the military authorities in Damascus, most of whom emerged from Islamist insurgent groups that overthrew Assad, oppose women in combat.

YPJ commander Nowruz Ahmad said the group's leaders had asked to join the interior ministry's security forces as a regiment within the special missions department. She said officials told them there are women in the ministry and in General Security and that their numbers could grow, but not within the special mission forces. Ahmad said the YPJ, which now has about 1,500 women enlisted, down from a peak of 5,000, had also asked to remain in its current areas of operation in Hassakeh and Aleppo provinces, a request the government was open to, though details remain under discussion. Interior Ministry officials declined to comment on the negotiations.

Noah Bonsey, senior adviser on Syria with the International Crisis Group, said anger over the fuel hikes could become "a real obstacle to the integration process." Among Kurds open to some benefits of integration, he said, the rising cost of living undermines potential support, while for opponents it is one more reason to object.

Bonsey nonetheless cautioned against letting the tensions obscure the progress made since January. He described the two sides stepping back from the brink, negotiating a deal that stopped the fighting and gradually fleshing out its implementation as a considerable accomplishment, involving compromises tilted in favour of Damascus as the stronger party. The dynamic, he said, is challenging but overall positive, even as major obstacles remain on the ground.