Description: The Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), the country’s branch of the PKK, has repeatedly engaged in armed confrontations with the Syrian national army for the past couple of days. After three days of sporadic clashes in and around the city of Aleppo, the Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra has announced that both sides reached a ceasefire agreement which is to be implemented immediately precipitating the cessation of armed hostilities. The Syrian Government and the SDF signed an integration deal back in Mar, which was supposed to integrate the SDF armed forces into the Syrian National Army and put almost one quarter of SDF controlled territory under the centralized government in Damascus. Syria had recently held its first parliamentary elections which are expected to form the majority of what the People’s Assembly or the country’s Parliament.
Impact: The abrupt armed confrontations between SDF fighters and Syria’s national army represents a stark reminder of the divisional realities in Syria and the continuous fragile state of governance. The parliamentary elections delivered Syria’s first public representatives and sparked a prospect for a concept that resembled some sort of elementary government rule. Syria’s issues continue to range from inter-ethnic and inter religious tensions towards numerous armed fractions exercising different forms of control over larger swathes of territory which is emphasizing the country’s territorial partition and the lack of governmental oversight. The country would remain largely unstable in the long – term as the period of post-civil war transition is expected to be prolonged, taking into account the multi – vectored domestic issues.