No ‘excuses’ to stop Kurdish unity in Syria: Senior PYD official

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Salih Muslim, the spokesperson of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Kurdistan 24 that there are no legitimate excuses to keep the various Syrian Kurdish political parties –often at odds with each other – from uniting after a local administration removed restrictions that blocked the rival Kurdish National Council (KNC) from opening local offices.

“If we are to plan for serious actions, then we would not focus on the excuses, and that is true for the situation of Rojava and the Kurdish people in general. We have to look at where we are today and see what we can do while we set aside our differences,” he said.

“When it comes to the protection of your people, you do not need anyone’s permission. What has happened is that today a system has been developed [in Northeast Syria], and the world knows about that system,” Muslim continued. “There is an Autonomous Administration with many of its organizations and institutions – there are internal and foreign affairs, Asayish has been established, there is law and order.”

However, he accused the KNC of not accepting these developments. “They keep pressuring the PYD – in fact the PYD is working here like any other political party, and the Autonomous Administration is the one engaging in dialogue with the US, Russia, the Syrian government.”

The Self-Administration of North and Eastern Syria in late December canceled previous orders that its opponent, the KNC, could not engage in any official political activity in northern Syria. However, since then, no final agreement has been reached between the rivals. 

Read More: Syrian Kurdish-led administration drops legal obstacles to KNC activities 

Tensions between the KNC and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), one of the founders of the Self-Administration, have increased since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, with the latter playing a significant role in the establishment of the self-administration that has ruled northeastern Syria. 

When the dominant Syrian Kurdish factions, the PYD and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), later backed the KNC, it appeared to some observers that a deal was imminent. The two have still not successfully cooperated because agreements they reached in Duhok and Erbil between 2012 and 2014 have still never been effectively implemented.   

However, since 2017, relations have generally improved between the Syrian Kurds, especially after ties between Ankara and Erbil deteriorated following the Kurdistan Region’s September 2017 independence referendum. Turkey opposed the vote, despite enjoying robust economic and political relations with Erbil since 2008.

Moreover, when Turkey attacked the Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Afrin in January 2018, a delegation from the Kurdistan Region’s Parliament traveled there during the following month. 

The two major rival factions have been meeting since early November to discuss the need for unity after Turkey’s cross-border attack on northern Syria in October. Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces Mazloum Abdi has also met with the KNC to discuss Kurdish unity. 

Read More: Facing ‘existential threat’ from Turkey, rival Syrian Kurdish groups meet: Source 

The PYD spokesperson, Salih Muslim, called on the KNC to “negotiate with the [administration] system about your ideas, and the way you desire.”

“We are telling [the KNC] to open their offices, run their activities freely. What we hoped was that what they [the KNC] were demanding would have been different from what Erdogan wants. Erdogan wants us not to exist [in northeastern Syria].”

Eight months ago, the French government also led an initiative to bring the Kurdish parties together in France. 

The KNC, during this meeting, handed over a list with 10 missing persons, including one named Behzad Dorsin, who went missing in 2012. The PYD and KNC now say they are working on a committee to find a solution.

“There must be a committee for the missing people,” Muslim said. “There are ten names, and some of them we do not know what has happened to them. And on our side we also have tens and hundreds of people who are missing.”

“We have promised to them that there are no political prisoners, the doors are open – and we can together work on a plan to learn about the missing individuals. Together with the KNC, we can go and visit the Asayish and other security forces and find out about the missing people.”

However, he said that when he checked with the local Asayish and Administration, they had informed him that “there were no political prisoners – there were 1-2 people who were detained earlier but were later released.” 

“These people were not arrested for political reasons, there were other accusations – yet again, they were freed. The Administration is ready to carry out what needed to resolve the problems, we just do not know what do they [the KNC] really want. They are using the ‘prisoners’ issue as an excuse, and we have repeatedly said there are no prisoners, what else can we do about it? We cannot create prisoners!”

The PYD leader specifically added that he has no information about Dorsin. “He did not disappear recently, but when the Syrian government was still present in the area.”

Muslim concluded by warning that there is still a threat of Turkish attacks in the future.

“As for the last case, Trump ordered [the] withdrawal of US forces in a tweet, and Turkey started their attacks. Yet our fate is not tied to what others will do, our fate is upon what we do along with our people. We must be ready for the worst situation, knowing that no one would heal our pain other than ourselves.”

Editing by John J. Catherine