\n<\/p>\n
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the country\u2019s new leader has hosted a national unity conference and welcomed foreign dignitaries as crowds gather at cafes, speaking out freely for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n
But 400 miles away in northeastern Syria, a region beyond the control of the Damascus government, battles that have been going on for years are still raging. Drones buzz overhead day and night while airstrikes and artillery fire have forced thousands to flee their homes.<\/p>\n
The fight there pits two opposing militias against each other \u2014 the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the United States, and a predominantly Syrian Arab militia supported by Turkey. And the battle has only intensified since Islamist rebels ousted Syria\u2019s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad<\/a>, in early December.<\/p>\n Much is at stake in this conflict, including the ability of the new interim president, Ahmed al-Shara<\/a>, to unify the entire country, control its many religious and ethnic armed groups, and keep in check the terrorist group Islamic State, which has begun to gather strength again in parts of Syria. Neighboring countries worry that instability from any number of factions could spill across their borders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Also hanging in the balance is the fate of Syria\u2019s Kurds<\/a>, an ethnic minority that makes up about 10 percent of the population. Over the years, the Kurds have carved out a semiautonomous region in northeastern Syria.<\/p>\n One of the driving forces behind the fight in the northeast is the Turkish government\u2019s growing advantage over the Kurds, whom Turkey views as a threat both at home and in neighboring Syria because some violent Kurdish factions have pushed for a separate state.<\/p>\n At home, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey last week<\/a> scored a victory when the leader of the P.K.K., the Kurdish separatist movement that has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, called on his fighters to lay down their arms and disband. On Saturday, two days after the appeal by the leader, Abdullah Ocalan, the P.K.K. declared a cease-fire in Turkey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Turkey has also emerged in the past few months with greater influence in Syria because of its ties to the rebel group that overthrew Mr. al-Assad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The P.K.K.\u2019s decisions over the past week have reverberated across northeastern Syria. Some fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces also have roots in the P.K.K., and Mazloum Abdi, the Kurdish leader of the Syrian force, has been a close follower of Mr. Ocalan\u2019s ideology. But addressing the P.K.K. leader\u2019s call to disarm, he said \u201cit has nothing to do with the S.D.F.\u201d<\/p>\n The new government in Damascus is pressuring the Syrian Democratic Forces to disarm and merge into a national military force, as it has demanded of every other armed group in the country. But so far, the Syrian Democratic Forces have been reluctant, fearing that doing so could threaten the autonomy of the Kurds in northeastern Syria.<\/p>\n Mr. Abdi has said he wants his troops to become part of a new national Syrian army, but he also wants the force to be able to keep its weapons and continue to operate in northeast Syria.<\/p>\n