MESOP NEWS “NO KURDISH UNITY IN SYRIA” – PYD/PKK AGAINST KNC (KURDISH NATIONAL COUNCIL)

Kurdish National Council tries to regain position in Rojava, holds forum in Kobane

 January 15, 2017    Kurdish Region, Syria

ARA News – 15 Jan 2017 – Kobane – The Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC) held a political forum in the city of Kobane amid participation from different political parties. The forum took place during the unprecedented visit of KNC’s leaders Enwer Naso and Marouf Malla to the liberated city of Kobane. Rival Kurdish parties discussed the recent developments in Kurdish region and the Syria.

The KNC was criticised by other parties for boycotting the recently held Russia-sponsored meeting in the Hmemin Base in western Syria, where delegations from the Syrian regime and some Kurdish parties discussed the ongoing crisis and the future of the war-torn country.  The local office of the KNC in Kobane has recently announced that its decision-making was separated from the KNC’s central commission in Urfa. The Kobane’s KNC committee started holding forums and activities in an effort to regain its position in the post-war city.

Enwer Naso, member of Kurdish Yetiti Party in Syria and a leading member of the KNC, told ARA News that the council started discussing its political agenda with the people and rival political factions in northern Syria.

“The Kurdish National Council (KNC) has been holding meetings in Kobane and discussing the council’s political agenda with the people of Kobane,” Naso said. “As you know, Syria is now undergoing a new phase of peace negotiations, and the crisis might be resolved soon. There are planned negotiations, and we’re preparing ourselves to participate as a Kurdish force to guarantee the legitimate rights of our Kurdish people in new Syria.”

“We won’t accept exclusion from such crucial negotiations that might decide the future of a Syria,” the Kurdish leader said.Mustafa Abde, a member of the Kurdish Unity Party who participated in the KNC’s forum in Kobane, said: “We believe that every party has the right to explain its policies, and this is each party’s duty towards the people. But they have to accept any kind of criticism.”

“We have participated in this forum, as we had no reason to boycott the KNC,” he told ARA News. “We have our own vision, but we are ready to join any talks with any political movement in the region, whether it’s PYD or KNC.”

 The Kurdish National Council is backed by President Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD), on the other hand, is backed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). T he PYD is considered one of the most dominant Kurdish parties in northern Syria, especially after filling the vacuum caused by the withdrawal of the Syrian regime’s forces from Rojava [Syrian Kurdish region] early in the 6-year-old crisis in the country.

So far, the KNC and PYD have not been able to share power in northern Syria, and have been working against each other since the failure of the Duhok agreement in October 2014. While the PYD has repeatedly accused the KNC of working for Turkey, the KNC has accused the PYD of working with the Syrian government. www.mesop.de