MESOP NEWS FLASH : Syrian Kurds set to announce federal system in northern Syria / Following orders from Kandil (PKK Leadership)

BEIRUT (Reuters) – 16 March 2016 – Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system on Wednesday, a Syrian Kurdish official said, taking matters into their own hands after being excluded so far from political talks to resolve the Syrian war.

The step that will combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syrian into a federal system will be sure to alarm neighbouring Turkey, which fears growing Kurdish sway in Syria is fueling separatism among its own Kurdish minority.The announcement would mean “widening the framework of self-administration which the Kurds and others have formed,” said Idris Nassan, an official in the foreign affairs directorate of Kobani, one of three autonomous areas set up by Kurdish groups two years ago. He told Reuters the areas would be named the Federation of northern Syria, and represent all ethnic groups living there. www.mesop.de