MESOP: THE PROBLEMS OF THEORETICALLY IDEALIZED CANTONIZATION / Statement announces Arab group contesting PYD rule

MESOP / ARA NEWS – 3. March 2015 – A statement reportedly representing the Arab residents of Al-Hasakah announced the formation of a new political organization to contest the rule of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party [PYD] over the province, said the pro-Kurdish news agency ARA News.

“We Arabs, representing what is considered the largest portion of the province stretching up to 70 percent [of the population], will not allow any side, party or organization to control our resources, our lives and our wealth,” said the statement, as reported by the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It is unclear who published the announcement. “This [new] organization….is a creation of [IS] and the Syrian regime in order to create a rift between the different groups in the region,” Sheyar Hussein, an activist in the Kurdish city of Qamishli, told ARA News. The allegation could not be independently confirmed. The PYD declared self-governance in Al-Hasakah province in late 2013. Its military wing, the People’s Protection Units [YPG], has been battling the Islamic State for control of the province.