In the town of Ain Issa, in Syria’s northeastern governorate of Raqqa, the general council of the self-administration for northern and eastern Syria approved June 23 the Self-Defense Duty Law in northern Syria. The council also gave the committees for self-defense the authority to determine the age of recruits within their areas of control.
The youth of al-Jazira and Kobani had different expectations as they expected the old conscription law to change. As a result, protests broke out one day after the decision was issued and are still ongoing in several self-administration areas. Both Kurds and Arabs believe they are being discriminated against as they are forced to join the ranks of the Self-Defense Forces, fighting alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while the youth from other regions were not.
