MESOP NEWS : Pro-Assad demonstrators in Qamishli city, northeast of Syria.

26-03-2014 – ARA News – Azad Jamkari – Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan– The Syrian northeastern city of Qamishli has seen recently a series of pro-regime demonstrations. The last one came on the 15th of March, the same day of the third anniversary of the Syrian anti-Assad uprising’s outbreak. The pro-regime demonstrations in the city of Qamishli −where Kurds constitute a majority− caused a considerable controversy concerning the motives behind them and the timing of their occurrence.Birusk Dibo, a media activist, expressed his belief that these pro-Assad demonstrations are “an attempt by the regime to mobilize its advocates and henchmen” in Qamishli city, as it is the case in some other Syrian cities as well which are still under its control, to confirm its influence over those cities and areas.

Dibo further argued that the timing of the last demonstration (March 15) was “provocative” as it coincided the third anniversary of “the Syrian revolution”, and considered it a “scandal” for the Democratic Union Party (PYD) −which is allegedly in control over the city through its armed forces of the Assayish and the YPG. 

“The regime advocates were allowed to demonstrate just one day after the PYD-linked Assayish forces prevented Kurdish residents of Qamishli to commemorate the anniversary of the late Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, and also denied several Kurdish political parties the right to celebrate the International Women’s Day,” Dibo said. 

On his part, Lazgin Dironi, the chairman of the Union of Kurdish Writers in Tirpesipiye city, said that the regime advocates are allowed to demonstrate in Qamishli city whenever they want, because Qamishli is under the regime’s control and there is not any other force (referring to PYD) which might prevent them to do so.

“It was also a message to the regime opponents in Qamishli city that the regime came out victorious three years after the revolution, and that most of the Arabs and Christians, in addition to the PYD supporters, still back the Assad regime,” Dironi stated in an interview with ARA News. With respect to the decline of the momentum of anti-regime demonstrations in the predominantly Kurdish areas on the third anniversary of the outbreak of the protests against the Assad regime, Dironi attributed it to “the wrong path which the revolution took, the migration of most of the anti-regime Kurdish youths and the betrayal of the Kurdish people’s aspirations by the Kurdish political parties which have failed to unite their efforts and agree on a unified Kurdish decision”.

“Moreover, most of the Syrian people, especially Kurds, don’t believe in this revolution anymore after Islamist groups rode its wave and have given an Islamic character to the revolution and have denied the rights of other Syrian social components as well as the rights of Kurdish people,”  Dironi said. 

Omar Kocheri, vice-chairman of the Kurdish Journalists Syndicate, expressed his belief that the regime aimed (through organizing pro-Assad demonstrations in Qamishli) to show its supporters that the Kurds back it and that it is a protector to Syria’s minorities. “The regime conveyed a message to the PYD saying that they are not the only friends in the region and attempted to embarrass them on the Kurdish grassroots level, and thus announcing in a way non-recognition of the recently announced PYD-led self-rule administration in Syria’s Kurdish areas. The regime also wanted to reassure its Arab allies who are afraid of the growing Kurdish force that it is still in control in these areas and is able to subdue any other forces whenever it wants,” Kocheri told ARA News.  

Kocheri attributed the “shy” commemoration of the third anniversary of the “Syrian revolution” in the predominantly Kurdish areas to the “prevention of the PYD-led Kurdish Assayish forces of protesting without a written approval issued by them, the delay of the popular victory, the migration of thousands of activists and the belief of many that the regime will not fall, beside their desire of the return of calmness to the country”.