PYD aims to strengthen link with ETA & Catalonia

Insecure Partners for PYD

… no real progress: ETA is more or less bankrupt & and the wealthy catalonia far away from being on the side of social revolution.

25.03.2014 – Hemin Khoshnaw – BasNews, Erbil – A member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) announced that the Syrian Kurdish party has good relations with Catalonia and the Basque region and that if they create stronger ties with the nationalist organization Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA) it is not for reasons related to weapons exchange.

PYD official Gharib Haso told BasNews that relations between Syrian Kurdistan and the Basque country are strong and the same ties are likely to form between the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and ETA. The ties are set to be military but will not include weapons exchange.

“Two MPs from the Basque country visited the Kurdistan Region on March 20th and were supposed to visit Syrian Kurdistan for Newroz but the border crossing with Syria was closed and they were unable to visit,” said Haso.

Haso spoke of the relations between Kurdistan and the Basque Country as both regions have been oppressed and in particular between the Spanish region and Syrian Kurdistan. PYD leader Saleh Muslim and The Co Chair of the People’s Council of Western Kurdistan, Sinam Mohammad, have previously visited the Basque Country and PYD is working to strengthen relations, said Haso.

“If the political relations between the PYD and the Basque Country becomes stronger it is likely to make relations between YPG and ETA easier. ETA believes that unlike other military forces in Syria that have become weaker, YPG has grown stronger,” added Haso. He believes that it is normal for PYD to have relations with Catalonia and the Basque Country; it is a right for both sides to have military relations between YPG and ETA. The purpose of this relation is only for military experience.