Syrian Kurdish PYD elects new leaders at the 8th party Congress
Ay?e Hiso (R) and Anwar Muslim were elected as new co-chairs of the Syrian Kurdish PYD at the 8th party Congress in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), February 25, 2020. Photo: Ekurd/screengrab/ANHA video
RIMELAN, Syrian Kurdistan,— The Kurdish Democratic Union Party ((Partiya Yekîtiya Demokratîk, PYD) in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) elected new co-chairs during its two-day Congress that concluded on Tuesday in the country’s northeast.
A total of 600 delegates participated in the even.
The PYD’s Eighth Congress was held in the town of Rimelan in the Qamishlo canton under the slogan, “With the Democratic Union, We Defeat Occupation, Develop Autonomous Administration, and Build a Democratic Syria.”
On the second day of the congress, which was closed to the press, the political program was discussed. In addition, amendments to the statutes were adopted. The number of members of the party council was increased from 49 to 90, that of the executive committee from 13 to 20.
Ay?e Hiso and Anwar Muslim were elected as new co-chairs of the party.
Anwar Muslim, the former head of the party’s Euphrates region, replaced Shahoz Hasan as its co-chair, while Aysha (Ay?e) Hiso remained the female co-head.
The PYD and other Kurdish institutions in northeastern Syria follow a gender-balanced system where every top position is held by both a female and a male co-chair.
The worldwide-respected PYD-led Autonomous Administration in Syrian Kurdistan has a secular decentralized self-rule, where equality between men and women, direct democracy, and environmental responsibility are emphasized.
“Our work, since the founding of the party, has been to build a free, democratic, decentralized Syria,” Muslim said during his speech according to the official PYD website.
“The liberation of Syrian lands from the Turkish occupation and the terrorists, foremost amongst them are Afrin, Girispi (Tal Abyad), and Serekaniye (Ras al-Ain). Today our tasks are heavy. But with our unity we will overcome all obstacles and challenges.”
Ay?e Hiso was born in 1978 in Afrin, in the district of Sherawa and has been politically active in PYD since the founding of the party in 2003. With the beginning of the Rojava revolution, she started working in the women’s umbrella organization Yekîtiya Star (today: Kongreya Star), and was also active in TEV-DEM (Movement for a Democratic Society). At the last PYD congress in September 2017 she was elected as co-chairwoman.
Anwar Muslim was born in Kobanê and studied law in Aleppo. Afterwards he worked for a long time as a lawyer in his hometown. At the beginning of the Rojava revolution, Anwar Muslim became chairman of the executive council in the canton of Kobanê. He actively participated in the defense of the city against the “ISIS”. Most recently he was co-chairman of the Executive Council of the Euphrates region.
The PYD was established in 2003 and is considered the political affiliate of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which effectively serves as the army of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and has emerged as a key partner for the United States in the fight the Islamic State in Syria.
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 Syrian 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 firatnews.com | kurdistan24.net | Agencies)
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