Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a surprise decree on Friday granting the country’s oppressed Kurdish minority long-denied rights.

The decree affirms that “Syrian Kurdish citizens are an integral and authentic part of the Syrian people, and that their cultural and linguistic identity is an inseparable component of Syria’s unified and diverse national identity,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported.

Citing the provisions of Syria’s transitional constitutional declaration that was unilaterally drafted by the government last year, the decree commits the state to protecting the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Kurds. Most critically, it declares the Kurdish language a national language that can be taught in state-run and private schools in areas where the Kurds constitute a significant percentage of the population. The decree also states that March 21, marking the Kurdish new year, or “Nowruz,” will now be a national holiday throughout Syria.

The concessions go beyond any made by Turkey, home to the region’s largest Kurdish minority, or any by Iran that also has a large and restive Kurdish population. Iraq is the sole country where the Kurds’ federal status is constitutionally guaranteed. But they fall well short of Kurdish demands for autonomy and for the removal of “Arab” from Syria’s official name, “The Syrian Arab Republic.”