Young Kurdish men, including members of religious minorities, recently signed up to join the Syrian government’s General Security forces in Afrin, an area in the country’s north from which Kurds were forcibly displaced years ago.

The push to recruit ethnic and religious minorities comes as the government in Damascus faces increased scrutiny after outbreaks of sectarian violence in recent months during which there were widespread reports of government-affiliated fighters killing and humiliating civilians from the Alawite and Druze sects.

A U.N.-backed commission that investigated violence on Syria’s coast recommended earlier this month that authorities should recruit from minority communities for a more “diverse security force composition” to improve community relations and trust.

In Afrin, authorities have heeded that advice, with groups of young Kurds from various religious sects lining up to enlist in the Internal Security Forces.

“It is a state strategy to involve all segments of society in the governance of the state and in state-building, so that a sense of national belonging exists for everyone," said Ferhad Khurto, the Deputy Director of the Afrin District for Political Affairs.

According to Khurto, about 1,000 young men had signed up in recent days to join in the area.

He did not provide a breakdown of the demographics of the new recruits.

When asked for the numbers and percentage of minorities joining the security forces, Noureddine al-Baba, spokesperson for the Syrian Ministry of Interior, told The Associated Press “competence and patriotism are the criteria used, not sectarian quotas.”

The recruitment effort drew skepticism in some quarters.

Minorities are increasingly wary of the new authorities in Damascus, who are led by Sunni Muslim Islamist former insurgents who overthrew President Bashar Assad in December after a nearly 14-year civil war.

An agreement reached in March between Damascus and Kurdish-led forces that control much of northeast Syria also has been on shaky ground.

Abbas Mohammad Hamouda, a Kurdish Alawite, was among the young men lining up at a recruitment center in Afrin on Wednesday.

“I came with other young men to enlist in the Internal Security Forces, to enlist in protecting Afrin, to enlist so that we can all be united as one hand, without having any racism, for example, from the side of religions or from any other side," he said.

Formerly a Kurdish-majority area, Afrin was seized by Turkish forces and allied Syrian opposition fighters in 2018, following a Turkey-backed military operation that pushed fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and thousands of Kurdish civilians from the area.

Arabs displaced from other parts of Syria have settled in the area since then and the Kurds who stayed have complained of discrimination against them.

The Afrin Social Association, an initiative providing support to people displaced from Afrin in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, said in a statement posted on Facebook that “enrollment of some young people in the General Security Forces, without any guarantees to protect Afrin’s communities and ensure the dignified and voluntary return of the displaced, is an irresponsible act.”

The association accused the authorities in Damascus of trying to “circumvent” the March agreement, which called for displaced people to be able to return to their homes, including in Afrin, along with a merger of the new government’s army and the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

AP video shot by: Omar Albam

Production by Malak Harb, Ali Sharafeddine, Suzanne Lowry