PYD to open representative office in Baghdad

22.01.2014 – Hemin Salih – BasNews, ERBIL: The Democratic Union Party (PYD) plans to open a representative office in the Iraqi Capital Baghdad.Ja’afer Hannan, a PYD representative in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, told BasNews the aim of opening party representative offices is to foster stronger relationships with all neighboring countries.

The PYD is considered the strongest Kurdish Party in Syria, however some refer to the party as the Syrian branch of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, two months after declaring self-rule, Syrian Kurds have named a municipal council for one of three majority-Kurdish regions in the country’s northeast, an official said. “We have named a municipal government for the Jazeera area,” Saleh Muslim, head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told AFP. “Soon similar councils will be named for Afrin and Kobani, the two other cantons of the Kurdish regions in Syria,” Muslim added. Syrian Kurds announced self-rule in November among the majority-Kurdish regions in north and northeast Syria. The move was seen as “hostile” by their main opposition, the Syrian National Coalition.