{"id":45723,"date":"2016-03-17T02:14:29","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T06:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=45723"},"modified":"2016-03-17T08:04:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T12:04:10","slug":"pyd-the-leading-kurdish-political-party-declares-an-autonomous-federal-state-in-the-north-of-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=45723","title":{"rendered":"Leading Kurdish Political Party PYD  Declares an Autonomous Federal State in the North of Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> 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.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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 &#8211; Jazira, Kobani, and Afrin. The three cantons were previously known as Rojava, or West Kurdistan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A conference will be held by the democratic self-administration cantons in Rojava to discuss their dismantlement,&#8221; a Kurdish agency quoted a spokesman as saying. &#8220;In their place, a federal system for Western Kurdistan [Rojava] will be declared.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Kurdish leaders immediately suggested the region would be a model for a future Syria, an outcome that would be seen by many as &#8220;splitting the country&#8221; along ethnic and sectarian lines.<\/p>\n<p>The presence of an autonomous Kurdish region along its southern border is fiercely opposed by Turkey &#8211; 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 &#8211; mostly held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Syria&#8217;s national unity and territorial integrity is fundamental for us,&#8221; a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters. &#8220;Outside of this, unilateral decisions cannot have validity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The Kurdish move, which will be formally declared in Rumeilan today, also appeared to be aimed at the current peace talks in Geneva.<\/p>\n<p>The PYD were excluded from the talks, not least because no one could agree on which side they would sit.<br \/>\nThey claim to be opposed to the Assad regime, but have co-operated with it at times. <\/p>\n<p>Their main enemies have been Isil and other jihadist groups, but they are also involved in a mini-war for territory with &#8220;moderate&#8221; rebels.<\/p>\n<p>Their answer to exclusion from the talks seems to have been to do something that will be opposed by both sides &#8211; declare semi-independence.<\/p>\n<p> Their quest for autonomy have been supported by Russia, the regime&#8217;s most important backer.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy: The Daily Telegraph<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton45723\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D45723&amp;text=Leading%20Kurdish%20Political%20Party%20PYD%20%20Declares%20an%20Autonomous%20Federal%20State%20in%20the%20North%20of%20Syria&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=45723\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Leading Kurdish Political Party PYD  Declares an Autonomous Federal State in the North of Syria&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45723"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45734,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723\/revisions\/45734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}