KRG Refuses To Recognize Rojava Cantons

(ROJAVA REPORT – PYD ) – 12.2.2014 –  The Foreign Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Felah Mustafa, has announced that the government has decided against recognition of the newly autonomous Rojava cantons.

However the Patriot Union of Kurdistan (YNK), a member of the current government, has claimed to recognize the cantons. It is thus currently unclear if the decision against recognition was made by the government as a whole, or was simply the decision of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) – the senior partner in the current KRG government.

Mustafa, speaking to Rudaw, said that “the Kurdish region, in making a decision on the cantons in Rojava, would not recognize one-sided decisions.” Mustafa went on to argue that European countries were looking at this problem from within the same framework, thus signaling the source from which they have taken their approach to their brothers and sisters across the border.

In Whose Name Did Hewler Make This Decision?

The Western countries which Hewler (Erbil) pointed to in making this decision have worked toward the partition of Kurdistan into four parts, remained quiet when during the Saddam regime 200 thousand Kurds lost their lives, and worked together with this regime to produce chemical weapons.

Mustafa did not make it clear with whom the government in Hewler had met before taking this decision. Indeed the YNK, currently a junior partner in the government, has stated that it recognizes the cantons and accepts their legitimacy. On November 17, 2013 Dr. Necmedin Kerim, a member of the YNK Politburo, stated that the party recognized Rojava’s temporary administration. On January 29 of this year Mele Bextiyar, another member of the YNK Politburo, said that accepted the legitimacy of the ongoing developments in Rojava.

Moreover Noşirvan Mustafa, the leader of the Goran Movement – the second largest party in the KRG’s last elections and the current leader of the opposition – both celebrated and voiced his support on February 1st for the proclamation of autonomy by the Cizîrê, Kobanê, and Efrîn cantons. Once more the so-called “one-sided” project of autonomy in Rojava was proclaimed in the name of all the different peoples and communities of the region, and political parties within ENKS have also taken official positions of responsibility within the cantons’ administration.