New administration name adopted for local administration in northeast Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The General Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) on Wednesday adopted a social contract on Wednesday, in which the AANES was renamed as Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).

Moreover, the new de-facto constitution said that the DAANES will have its own flag that will be flown alongside “the flag of the Syrian Democratic Republic.”

Furthermore, the administration area will now be consolidated into a single region named the "North and East Syria Region," encompassing seven provinces.

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The new social contract also paves the way for elections in northeast Syria, which were delayed in 2018.

Moreover, the "General Council" was also renamed to the "Peoples’ Council of North and East Syria."

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Frequently referred to by Kurds as Rojava, or “Western Kurdistan,” the DAANES was established at the Third Conference of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) on July 16, 2018 in Ain Issa.

Before the DAANES, the local system was called the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS), whose name was adopted in 2016.

Despite not being recognized internationally, the DAANES has had a strong working relationship with the US, which has supported its military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), since the onset of the ISIS war.

The SDF and the US have publicly called on foreign countries to repatriate their citizens. 

Earlier on Saturday, the US-led Coalition released a statement saying “thanks to the SDF and AANES in 2023, more than 4,400 people have been returned to their communities and countries of origin from these camps, helping to ease the burden of providing humanitarian services and reducing the risk of Daesh's (ISIS) exploitation of this vulnerable population.”