Syrian Opposition Slams Kurdish Autonomy Demand

5-12-2013 – worldbulletinnet – A leading member of Syria’s opposition coalition has warned that if calls for an autonomous Kurdish region in a federal Syria were to be floated during the upcoming Geneva II conference this would have the effect of disrupting talks.

Broaching the issue would “cause confusion,” which would only serve the interest of the Bashar al-Assad government, Hisham Marwa, a member of the legal committee of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, told Anadolu Agency.

Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) leader Salih Moslem said he hoped to raise the issue at the Geneva II conference, due to be held next month.

“We want to go to Geneva II with one objective in mind: bringing down the Assad regime,” Marwa said. “After that, all other problems can be sorted out through national dialogue.”

“Establishing an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria should be determined at the ballot boxes not by one section of the Syrian people,” he asserted.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has set January 22 as the starting date of the Geneva II.

The conference had initially been planned for late May, after having first been proposed at a Moscow meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Amid heated disagreements as to who should have seats at the table, however, the event was subsequently postponed.

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