KNC condemns Turkish strikes on Afrin

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - The Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS) has condemned the Turkish strikes in the Kurdish city of Afrin and its nearby villages in northwestern Syria.

The attack—which took place around midnight on Thursday—caused many civilian casualties. 

Rezan Shekhmous, an ENKS representative in Europe, spoke to K24 on Sunday, “We [ENKS] condemn the Turkish assault on Afrin and the Kurdish areas in Syria, and we not only blame Turkey for that but also PYD for its coordination with the Syrian regime.”

“The only winner in this war is the Syrian regime because all its opponents are fighting on the ground: Turkey, the Syrian opposition and the extremist groups,” he added.

ENKS said in a statement released on Sunday, "The Kurdish National Council in Syria condemns the Turkish shelling in the Kurdish areas, including Afrin city and its suburbs, and calls for the Turkish government to stop the assault." 

“The council [ENKS] asks PYD not to fight the Syrian national opposition and not to involve the Kurdish people [of Syria] in a war against Turkey,” the statement continued.

The statement also calls on the international community and concerned countries to stop the Turkish attacks and spare the region and its people more disasters and calamities.

“The Turkish strikes came as a response to the Ankara blast a few days ago,” the statement said, pointing out that the Turkish government took advantage of the explosion as a pretext to legitimize its military intervention in Syria.

The Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS) was founded in Erbil on Oct. 26, 2011, with the support of the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Masoud Barzani.The Syrian National Council (SNC) was established earlier in August 2011.

The key difference between the two groups is that ENKS presses for Kurdish autonomy whereas the SNC has rejected anything more than administrative decentralization.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany