Syria Daily: Kurdish PYD Makes A Move for Federalism

March 17 – 2016 – by Scott Lucas – Led by the Kurdistan Democratic Union Party (PYD/PKK), some Syrian Kurdish groups made a move for federalism on Wednesday.

At a conference in Hasakeh Province in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish representatives said they would issue their statement on Thursday, pointing to a status beyond their current de facto autonomy in three cantons.Idris Nassan, an official in the Foreign Affairs Directorate of the Kobane canton, said the “Federation of Northern Syria” will mean “widening the framework of self-administration which the Kurds and others have formed”.

Syria’s Kurds have three cantons. Cezire in the northeast and Kobane in the north are already connected along the Turkish border. Afrin is the northwest is detached at the moment, but before the February 27 ceasefire, the YPG took some rebel territory in northern Aleppo Province to close the gap. Since holding off a four-month Islamic State offensive on Kobane in January 2015, the Kurds have benefited from their success in pushing back ISIS in northern Syria. Last autumn, the US swung most of its support of rebels to the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which also includes Arab and Assyrian units. www.mesop.de