Conference Aims To Unite Fractured Syrian Kurds

31/01/2012  RUDAW -  ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan – For two days last week, Kurdish political and opposition leaders held a conference in Erbil to press for the right to self-determination if the Syrian regime falls. “This meeting is a message to the world that the Kurds of Syria are not alone,” one participant at the conference told Rudaw.

More than 250 Kurdish representatives and political observers, mostly from Europe, attended the conference titled “The Right to Self-Determination and a Democratic Syria.” Syrian Kurds have been divided over whether to participate in anti-government protests in Syria and over what role they should play in the opposition, which is primarily based outside of the country. Syrian Kurdish leaders have also walked out of several opposition conferences over concerns that Kurdish rights are not being recognized by the Arab- and Islamist-dominated opposition.

Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani and Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Kamal Kirkuki attended the conference in an effort to support the Syrian Kurdish political parties and their struggle for Kurdish rights in Syria.

Barzani pressed the leaders to unify and pledged his support.

“Our support is tied to the unity of your positions,” he said in a speech at the event. “It is important to stop the narrow partisan interests for now and follow the path of Kurdishness until the situation had calmed down.”

Kamaran Hajo, a member of the Kurdish National Council in Syria, said the lack of unity was major issue among Kurds from the outset of uprising against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“We need to help ourselves first by creating unity among us,”

“The Syrian Kurds have come closer together after the Kurdish National Council was founded,” he said. “President Barzani is aware of the divisions that have plagued Syria political movements for years. Narrow partisanship has created many obstacles for Kurdish politics.” Hajo believes that Barzani’s message was directed at organizations and groups that have not yet joined the KNC. “We hope the groups that have not joined the KNC will join it soon,” Hajo said. “At the same time, all the KNC members must change the logic of their work because only in this way we can see success.”

Kamaran Abdo, a leader at Kurdish Democratic Union Party, believes that even if Iraqi Kurdish leaders lend their support, it won’t help unless there is unity among Syrian Kurds.

“We need to help ourselves first by creating unity among us,” Abdo said.

Saadaddin Mulla, a KNC delegate from Cairo, said the Erbil conference showed that Kurds in other areas stand by Syrian Kurds.

“It was a message to the Arab opposition in Syria, neighboring countries and the world that Syrian Kurds aren’t without support,” Mulla said. “If the Syrian Kurds face danger, the Kurds from other countries will come to their aid.” Some Kurdish parties and youth groups did not attend the conference in Erbil, and Hajo called it a serious shortcoming. “The invitation to this Erbil conference was only sent to those close to the Kurdish National Council,” he said. “This is a shortcoming, and the organizers are responsible.”

Hajo added, “The Syrian Kurds demand self-determination within a united Syria, but they did not raise the Syrian flag next to the Kurdish flag in the conference hall.” Muhammad Ahmed Salo, a Kurdish student of law in Cairo, told Rudaw that he hoped the Erbil conference would become a milestone for Syria’s Kurds to unite. “I did not come to this conference for the sake of the political parties, but I came for the Kurds so that I can pressure the Kurdish politicians to unite their positions,” he said. “I hope our politicians will read the message of President Barzani and unite by distancing themselves from partisanship.”