ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian government official said on Monday the raising of Syria's flag by northeastern Syia's (Rojava) authorities at the Semalka border crossing with the Kurdistan Region is a "unilateral" move and not coordinated with Damascus.
"It was a unilateral step," Mazen Alloush, director of Public Relations at Syria's General Authority told Rudaw on Monday, adding that "there was no coordination with us, and we have nothing to do with raising the Syrian flag at that border crossing."
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) on Sunday hoisted the Syrian flag alongside its own at the Semalka border crossing between the Kurdistan Region and Rojava for the first time.
The Semalka border crossing is a strategic point linking Rojava to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The crossing connects the town of Semalka in al-Malikiya (Derik) with the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.
Alloush claimed that the move was made by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Rojava’s de facto army, to "confuse matters."
Photos of the two flags side by side quickly went viral on social media, sparking widespread controversy.
The Kurdish-led force and Rojava authorities have not yet issued an official statement regarding this move.
Ever since the December collapse of the Assad regime, authorities in the northeast have adopted the new flag, across the Kurdish-held enclave and other regions under their control. The flag, featuring three red stars and the colors green, white, and black, had been used by various opposition groups fighting against Assad’s oppressive regime.
The previous flag, featuring two green stars and the colors of red, white and black, used to be raised in some parts of Rojava where the regime institutions were present - commonly known as security squares.
The development comes at a time Damascus and the SDF are locked in serious disagreements.
Last week in New York, Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa criticized delays in implementing a landmark March deal to integrate the SDF into state institutions, suggesting the hold-up stems from separatist ambitions presented as decentralization. He also claimed that Kurds make up only a quarter of the population in Rojava.