Syrian Kurdish National Council meets with officials in Moscow

MOSCOW (Kurdistan 24) – A delegation of Syria’s Kurdish National Council (ENKS) met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow to discuss recent developments in the Syrian conflict, a top Kurdish official said on Tuesday.

Kamiran Hajo, head of the ENKS Foreign Relations Committee, told Kurdistan 24 they held talks with Bogdanov about drafting a new constitution for Syria, Kurdish rights in Syria, affiliated Syrian rebel groups, and the situation in the besieged city of Afrin under the rule of Turkish troops.

“In the meeting, we focused on federalism as the optimal solution for the Syrian crisis, but under a whole Syrian consensus, not as proposed by TEV-DEM,” he said, referring to a previous plan for federalism put forward by the self-administration in north Syria.

The PYD-led administration proposed a vote on the plan about two years ago, but it never came to fruition after being rejected by both the Syrian government and the Turkish-based Syrian Arab opposition. The ENKS, as part of that opposition, also rejected the proposal.

Hajo continued, “Russian Foreign Ministry again confirmed they had not been a party in the conflict and that the Syrians should reach an agreement to run their affairs."

Bogdanov stressed that the internal Syrian Kurdish disputes need to be solved through dialogue and negotiations, said Hajo, citing political tension between the different groups.

After the breakout of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Syrian Kurds split into two main factions: the councils of TEV-DEM and ENKS.

In control of Kurdish-held areas in Rojava is the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM in Kurdish), a political coalition led by the PYD and other Kurdish parties, operating a system of three “autonomous administrations.” These administrations include Jazira, Kobani, and Afrin in Syria’s north, with independent police forces and schools.

Afrin was seized in March by the Turkish army and their allied Syrian opposition armed groups, referred to as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The federal system, declared by TEV-DEM two years ago, would have united these districts, known as cantons, under a single administrative unit.

The other Syrian Kurdish Council, ENKS, was founded in Erbil on Oct. 26, 2011, with the support of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

ENKS was part of the Turkey-based Syrian Arab opposition and has been embroiled in previous political conflicts with the PYD-led administration of Rojava.

Editing by John J. Catherine