Pro-Turkey ENKS meeting in Qamishlo city, Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), December 17, 2019. Photo: Rudaw
QAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan,— The Syrian Kurdish opposition parties, affiliated with Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP party leader Massoud Barzani, have refused to re-open their offices in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northeast Syria, citing a lack of trust in the ruling Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), Rudaw reported.
The decision was made by the pro-Turkey Kurdish National Council (ENKS), an umbrella group of opposition parties in a Friday meeting in Qamishlo city.
The self-administration in Syrian Kurdistan NES said in a December 17 statement that they would allow the ENKS to reopen offices in the region – shut down by the ruling authorities in 2016.
The statement added that the Kurdish authorities will drop all legal cases against ENKS members, and form a committee to investigate opposition claims that its members are being held in NES prisons for political reasons.
Despite long-standing divisions, Turkey’s launch of “Operation Peace Spring” against Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria in October 2019 has encouraged Kurdish parties in Rojava to re-engage in serious efforts to build unity.
Most ENKS members have been living in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Turkey and Western countries after some were banned from entering northeast Syria due to perceived links with Turkey.
The ENKS, a Turkey-backed organization that opposed to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD, was established by Massoud Barzani and his KKDP of Iraqi Kurdistan in October 2011. The KDP doesn’t recognized the autonomous Cantons and the self-government in Syrian Kurdistan.
ENKS, which comprised of 12 small Kurdish parties, do not have any real authority on the ground in Syrian Kurdistan and refused to recognize the administration in Syrian Kurdistan.
Bashar Amin, a member of the ENKS General Secretariat, told pro-KDP Rudaw TV that the lack of trust in the NES is the biggest issue for the group.
“For us, the essential thing is the creation of trust between us. Additionally, we prioritize the issue of the detainees [ to the re-opening of offices],” he said referring to the alleged detention of tens of their members by the NES in the last few years.
The NES has previously said there are no ENKS political prisoners in Rojava. However, the group has submitted a list of dozens of members they claim are being held in NES prisons.
The ENKS has in the past refused to recognize the ruling administration, accusing it of being unwilling to share power.
Syrian Kurdish security forces (Asayish) announced the release of one recently-detained ENKS member, Suud Mizar Issa, on December 21 as part of the reconciliation process. It claimed that Issa had colluded with “external parties” to endanger the region.
The opposition group denied the claim, saying that their member was detained for his political activities.
Massoud Barzani, who has close-ties with Turkish government, said in March 2016 any support to the Syrian Kurdish PYD party means support for the PKK. “They are exactly one and the same thing”,
The ENKS is also close to the Rojava Peshmerga force in Iraqi Kurdistan, which has been found by Massoud Barzani and backed by Turkey.
The worldwide-respected Autonomous Administration in Syrian Kurdistan has a secular decentralized self-rule, where equality between men and women, direct democracy, and environmental responsibility are emphasized.
Syria’s Kurds have established a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Syria during the country’s eight-year war.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF forces, the de facto army of the autonomous Kurdish region, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
The Kurdish forces expelled the Islamic State from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.
11,000 Kurdish male and female fighters had been killed in five years of war to eliminate the Islamic State “caliphate” that once covered an area the size of Great Britain in Syria and Iraq.
(With files from rudaw.net | Agencies)
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