The leading Kurdish political party in Syria declared its own federal state in the north of the country yesterday (Wednesday), laying down a challenge to both Turkey and to peace talks in Geneva.
Leaders of the PYD, the Leftist party that is now the dominant power in north-east Syria and is allied to the Turkey-based guerrilla group the PKK, said they were planning to announce a single autonomous federal region, comprising the three divided territories under their control – Jazira, Kobani, and Afrin. The three cantons were previously known as Rojava, or West Kurdistan.
“A conference will be held by the democratic self-administration cantons in Rojava to discuss their dismantlement,” a Kurdish agency quoted a spokesman as saying. “In their place, a federal system for Western Kurdistan [Rojava] will be declared.”
Kurdish leaders immediately suggested the region would be a model for a future Syria, an outcome that would be seen by many as “splitting the country” along ethnic and sectarian lines.
The presence of an autonomous Kurdish region along its southern border is fiercely opposed by Turkey – particularly if the PYD and its armed wing, YPG, manage to join up the two currently divided parts of Rojava by seizing the territory that separates them – mostly held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
“Syria’s national unity and territorial integrity is fundamental for us,” a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters. “Outside of this, unilateral decisions cannot have validity.”
Turkey has made stopping the emergence of a single Kurdish autonomous region from Afrin in the west to Qamishli, near the Iraq border in the east, a centrepiece of its policy on Syria.
It is afraid that the zone would become a second base after northern Iraqi Kurdistan for PKK operations against south-east Turkey, where a long-running war has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The region enjoyed a three-year truce but violence exploded again last year, spilling over from the Syrian conflict.
The Kurdish move, which will be formally declared in Rumeilan today, also appeared to be aimed at the current peace talks in Geneva.
The PYD were excluded from the talks, not least because no one could agree on which side they would sit.
They claim to be opposed to the Assad regime, but have co-operated with it at times.
Their main enemies have been Isil and other jihadist groups, but they are also involved in a mini-war for territory with “moderate” rebels.
Their answer to exclusion from the talks seems to have been to do something that will be opposed by both sides – declare semi-independence.
Their quest for autonomy have been supported by Russia, the regime’s most important backer.
Courtesy: The Daily Telegraph