Following the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime in December 2024, the emergence of a new administration in Damascus under Ahmed al-Sharaa’s leadership opened a significant window for national consolidation. In March 2025, al-Sharaa and Ferhat Abdi Şahin code-named "Mazloum Kobani," head of the YPG terrorist group, signed a memorandum of understanding outlining a road map for the gradual integration of the YPG's so-called armed wing, SDF, into the Syrian state’s security apparatus. This agreement signaled a tentative attempt to reconcile armed non-state actors with a reconstituting central authority. Yet the recent offensive attacks launched by the YPG mark a deliberate and calculated escalation with far-reaching implications. The intensification of clashes in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya neighborhoods is therefore not a localized security incident, but rather the violent manifestation of a deeper strategic struggle over Syria’s post-Assad political order.
YPG’s strategic calculus
The timing of the YPG’s escalation reflects a convergence of tactical considerati
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