Syrian Kurds offer the region a lesson in nationhood

When I look back at my university years—sharing a dorm room with a Kurdish colleague—I am reminded of a country that once understood unity not as a slogan but as a lived experience.

Iraq, despite its flaws, carried an instinctive sense of cohesion before its maps began to fracture.

That memory returned to me this week as I watched Mazloum Abdi announce the dissolution of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their full integration into the institutions of the Syrian state.

It was a reminder that belonging can be larger than geography, and that identity, when protected rather than weaponized, becomes a bridge rather than a trench.

I have never harbored negative feelings toward the Kurds.

Not because memory is […]