MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: PKK Seeks Good Ties with Syrian Regime: Top Leader

ERBIL26-10-2021- The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has never wished to severe ties with the Syrian regime and the Assad family, said Cemil Bayik, a top leader of the armed group.

Bayik, Member of Board of Directors of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), which is an umbrella group that includes the PKK as well, said in an interview with Al Arabiya Al Jadeed that the relations between the PKK and the Syrian regime are “historic” and “strong”.

“If they do not severe ties with us, we will not do so,” he explained.

Commenting on the negative positions the Syrian regime has taken against the PKK on multiple occasions throughout the past few years, Bayik said the PKK will not reciprocate in this matter.

For years after the establishment of the PKK, Damascus was home to the party leader Abdullah Ocalan and his men, from where they strengthened the foundations of the PKK and organized the future maneuvers in the triangle border areas between Syria, Turkey, and Iraq.

Bayik noted during the interview that the PKK respects the close relations between Ocalan and the Assad family that roots deep in their history.