When ISIS advanced across Syria and Iraq, many hesitated. The Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria did not.

They stood their ground. They fought street by street. They lost thousands of fighters.

Not only for their own communities, but for Europe’s security.

The Syrian Democratic Forces were at the forefront of the global fight against Daesh. They dismantled its territorial control. They secured detention facilities. They prevented the resurgence of a terrorist entity that posed a direct threat to our continent.

Today, those same forces risk being politically sidelined and structurally dismantled under the guise of “integration”.

That is morally wrong. And strategically reckless.

In Rojava, despite war and instability, we witnessed something rare in the Syrian context:

Women in leadership. Pluralistic local governance. Coexistence between Kurds, Arabs and Christians. A model of decentralised self-administration rather than sectarian fragmentation.

It was not perfect. But it was real. And it was built in the shadow of war.

Now contrast that with the European Union’s approach.

The European Commission has pledged €620 million to Damascus as part of a broader political partnership. Yet this financial engagement comes without clear, enforceable conditionality tied to human rights, inclusive governance, and guarantees for Kurdish political, cultural and security rights.

No firm safeguards.
No measurable benchmarks.
No credible accountability framework.

That is not strategic foresight. It is wishful thinking.

Stability in Northeast Syria cannot be built on paper agreements alone. It requires guarantees. It requires monitoring. It requires leverage, and the willingness to use it.

Support for Syria must mean:

Protection of Kurdish political and cultural rights.
Recognition of meaningful local self-governance within Syria’s territorial integrity.
Security guarantees that prevent renewed violence.
Strict and enforceable human-rights conditionality linked to EU funding.

Anything less sends the wrong signal.

If we fail to stand by those who defeated ISIS, we weaken our credibility. We undermine long-term stability. And we risk allowing short-term geopolitical calculations to override Europe’s own security interests.

Europe cannot afford strategic naivety.

Our foreign policy must be values-based, but it must also be grounded in realism.
And realism begins with recognising who stood with us when it mattered most.