DEREK, Syria — The civil servants and security officers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government have not totally abandoned this town of 60,000 in the northeastern extremities of the country, but they might as well have.

On Sept. 27, protesters waving the flags of Iraqi Kurdistan and the Free Syrian Army marched toward the headquarters of the secret police, the once-feared mukhabarat. As they neared the building, the language of their chants switched from their native Kurdish to Arabic to echo the refrain heard across the Middle East for more than 21 months now: “The people want to overthrow the regime.” The enforcers of the Damascus regime stared out at the crowds from behind the worn metal grates of the structure’s windows, powerless.

Depictions of Assad and his late father Hafiz are painted on the entrance of the complex, next to words declaring this to be “Assad’s Syria.” But in the late afternoon sun, this dusty street — and indeed the entire city of Derek — appeared to belong to the city’s Kurds, who make up a the vast majority of residents here.

There are around two million Kurds in Syria, making up about 10% of the country’s total population. They are located mainly in the country’s northeast. It is here that they have quietly taken control of sizeable chunks of territory in this sliver of land sandwiched between Turkey and Iraq. As did the 28 million other Kurds in Iraq, Turkey and Iran, Syria’s Kurds endured decades of marginalization and subjugation under unfriendly governments. Now autonomy is on the minds of many here. With the state gone, they are organizing for self-governance — from garbage collection to town councils and armed forces — as they lay tentative claim to some areas.