[SyriaDirect] The Revolutionary Youth Movement and Syrian Democratic Forces continue to recruit minors in northeastern Syria, despite past commitments and an integration agreement with Damascus.
By Afrin Muhammad
QAMISHLI — Sitting together in a classroom-turned-shelter in the northeastern Syrian border city of Qamishli, Ahmad Aref Abdalo, 54, and Najwa Qamiha, 43, told the story of the day their teenage daughter, Naziha Abdalo, went missing.
It was March 20, the start of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Abdalo woke that morning to find Naziha missing from the room she shared with her parents and four sisters at the school where they lived since being displaced from the Afrin area of Aleppo.
Not an hour later, the family received a voice message on WhatsApp from a United States (US) phone number, and immediately recognized Naziha’s voice. Naziha said she left willingly to join the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and hoped to become a kadro, a committed member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), her parents told Syria Direct.
A kadro, or cadre, is an official member of the PKK who has received military and ideological training at its stronghold in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq. Cadres typically take on organizational and military roles within the militant Kurdish political organization or its associated institutions.
When she heard the recording, Qamiha broke down, crying inconsolably. Shocked, Abdalo’s lower lip began to droop and his hands went numb, he said. He was taken to the hospital.
Naziha’s choice was not without precedent, but notably came just under two months after an agreement was signed between the Syrian government and the SDF on January 30, stipulating the latter would integrate with state institutions. Such integration would imply the end of independent SDF recruitment, with any future enlistment under the Ministry of Defense, which bars recruits under the age of 18.
“Eid al-Fitr is a time for joy, but it became a dark day,” Qamiha said, through tears. Every day since has been spent in “a state of waiting,” waking each morning in the hope her daughter will have come back to her, and sleeping each night disappointed.
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