From Sheikh Maqsoud to the January 29 Agreement
Shifts in the Relationship between the Syrian Interim Government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
The relationship between the Syrian Center and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is considered one of the most complex and problematic dynamics in the contemporary Syrian landscape. This relationship has neither taken the form of permanent, open conflict, nor has it evolved into a stable political partnership. Instead, since its inception, it has been characterized by a fluctuating state that fluctuates between circumstantial coordination, forced coexistence, and a latent tension capable of exploding at any moment.
This lecture takes the Sheikh Maqsoud model in the city of Aleppo as its starting point, viewing it as an urban space that reflects the nature of this relationship at a local level—where considerations of security, sovereignty, and administration intersect with demographic and political realities. From this model, the analysis shifts to the East of the Euphrates, the broader arena where the transformations of the relationship between the Syrian Center and the SDF manifest—not as an exceptional case, but as part of the reconfiguration of power and influence in post-centralized Syria.