MESOP : ALTAN TAN – Member of HDP: Both PYD & KDP has made mistakes in Syrian Kurdistan

06.05.2014 – DENIZ SERINCI – BasNews – Tensions continue between KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) and PYD (Democratic Union Party) in Syrian Kurdistan.

Among the controversies are the arrests of members of Kurdistan Democratic Party-Syria (KDP-S) on the grounds that they are illegally trying to form their own army. According to the PYD the KDP-S can join the ranks of the Popular Protection Units (YPG) − led by the PYD − to avoid any possible Kurdish infighting. Altan Tan, member of Turkish Parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), disagreed.  ’Why should KDP-S become part of YPG? Thinking ‘only I must have a military force, while no one else should’ is a wrong mentality’ he said in an interview, stressing that he was speaking for himself and not his party.

“In a democracy, there must be different voices and therefore there should be different Kurdish groups working together,” added Tan.

The PYD and The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have accused the KDP and the Kurdistan Region of trying to isolate the Syrian Kurds by digging a line of trenches on the border between the Kurdish Iraq-Syria border. Kurdish authorities say the trenches are a security belt to stop terrorists from creeping across the border.

In February 2014 PYD declared the establishment of a Kurdish autonomous region in Syria, the so-called cantons and published a draft constitution. However none of the neighbors or the international community, including KRG, has recognized the autonomy in Syrian Kurdistan. The KRG said it would not deal with a unilateral decision by the PYD.  Tan is critical of both parties and believes that the aim of the trenches is to isolate Syrian Kurdistan and punish the PYD for its exclusion of the KDP-S and other parties.

“If you dig ditches, it creates only more confrontation between the Kurds. It is wrong of the PYD to govern alone, without involving others, but KRG’s policy of trying to isolate Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) is also wrong,” Tan said. “PKK and KDP have to work together in Rojava. One day, they will settle disputes, like Barzani and Talabani did in Washington,” Tan said referring to the Kurdish Civil War between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which lasted from 1994 to 1997. In September 1998, KDP leader Massoud Barzani and PUK leader Jalal Talabani signed a U.S.-mediated peace treaty in Washington DC, ending the war.