Kurdish National Council excluded from Turkey-based Syrian opposition

On Wednesday, Syria’s Kurdish National Council (ENKS) withdrew from the Turkey-based Syrian Arab opposition group after the latter formed a new interim government in Istanbul without including any Kurdish ministers.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – On Wednesday, Syria’s Kurdish National Council (ENKS) withdrew from the Turkey-based Syrian Arab opposition group after the latter formed a new interim government in Istanbul without including any Kurdish ministers.

On July 12, the Syrian Arab opposition council, also known as the Syrian National Coalition, said in a report that it approved the new temporary government submitted by interim Prime Minister Jawad Abu Hatab.

The report mentioned the list of new government ministers, without any Kurdish minister.

No explanation was provided on why Kurds were excluded.  

Speaking to Kurdistan24, Hawaz Egid, an ENKS representative in Istanbul, said that excluding the Kurds from the new government does not mean that Kurds are excluded from the Syrian revolution.

“We withdrew from the new interim government simply because Kurds were not represented,” he said.

“Any government that doesn’t include all components of the Syrian people will fail,” he added.

Egid explained that the temporary government would not be efficient because it lacks female ministers. He also pointed out that it was restricted in one Province only, which is Idlib in northwestern Syria.

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

One council rules the Kurdish-held areas in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) called the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM in Kurdish).

TEV-DEM, a political coalition led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and other Kurdish parties, is operating a system of three “autonomous administrations.”

These administrations include Jazira, Kobani, and Afrin in Syria's north, with independent police forces and schools.

The federal system, declared by TEV-DEM on March 17, would unite these 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 President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani.

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

 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany