Syrian Kurds Talk Unity, Turkish Kurdistan Mayors Arrested // FAI ONLINE

A Syrian Kurdish woman displays the flag of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) near Ras al-Ayn, Syria, October 6, 2019 (Credit: Deliil Souleiman, AFP, via Rudaw).

American and French diplomats kick-started a stalled peace initiative between rival Kurdish factions in Northeast Syria (Rojava) this month in an effort to bridge the political divide between the Western-aligned Kurdish PYD, and its opposition groups, collectively known as the Kurdistan National Council (KNC). US State Department envoy to Northeast Syria, William Roebuck, is spearheading the initiative. His counterparts in Europe and Russia agree that Kurdish unity is a key ingredient to both the recovery of stability in Syria and the suppression of Islamic jihad.

The political row between the PYD and KNC dates back to the early years of the Syrian Civil War. After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad withdrew his forces from Northeast Syria in 2011 in an effort to quell the growing rebellion in the western provinces, the KNC was formed as an umbrella group of disparate Kurdish parties under the patronage of Masoud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan. At the time, the KNC was viewed by Western powers as the most viable Kurdish entity in Syria. However, as ISIS marched unchecked across eastern Syria in 2014, it was the relatively-unknown Kurdish-led PYD militia which made a miraculous stand at Kobane, and together with Arab and Assyrian militias, formed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and turned the tide against the Caliphate. The SDF soon became the primary partner of the US-led anti-ISIS Coalition and a powerful voice in the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the governing body of the newly-formed Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES). The KNC, with ties to Syrian opposition groups based in Turkey, viewed the PYD’s rise to power with suspicion, due to the PYD’s roots in the PKK, a pro-Kurdish resistance movement in Turkey, which has engaged in intermittent armed conflict with the government of Turkey since the 1980s.

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Masoud Barzani brokered initial reconciliation talks between the PYD and the KNC in 2014, which made little headway and eventually sputtered. The Turkish invasion of northern Rojava in October, 2019 reignited the call for Kurdish unity against a common threat. PYD commander Mazloum Kobane, reeling from the drawback of American forces as Turkish-backed militias advanced on Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, made sincere overtures to the KNC. The challenge was daunting, as the KNC faulted the PYD for forming an agreement with Assad that allowed Syrian troops to return to Northeast Syria, while many in the PYD view the KNC as an extension of pro-Turkish Syrian opposition groups. However, goodwill gestures by the PYD, including a high-profile prisoner release, showed the KNC that the Mazloum was sincere, and the detente has gradually gathered steam, as the United States, France and Russia have all acted as arbitrators.

The Turkish government, however, lashed out in public opposition to the Rojava peace talks this week, describing the initiative as a conspiracy in state-controlled media, and labeling the US and French efforts in Northeast Syria as an “axis of malice.” Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often described the autonomous government of Northeast Syria as a “terrorist state” while leading a campaign to depose and imprison democratically-elected mayors in Kurdish-majority Southeast Turkey. Five such Kurdish mayors in the HDP opposition party were arrested yesterday and charged with “ties to terrorism.” Forty-five out of the 65 Kurdish HDP mayors who took office after 2018 national elections have now been removed from office and charged with dubious terrorism-related crimes. They are replaced by appointees of Erdogan’s Islamist party who are deeply unpopular in their municipalities, due to a lack of public service or concern for public welfare.

Diplomacy between Kurdish factions in Syria and Iraq are undoubtedly a catalyst for Erdogan’s crackdown against pro-Kurdish parties in his own country. As the US-based representative of the HDP recently described, “Kurdish rights are like the sea level rising. When they rise in one place, they rise everywhere.” Turkish and Arab powers surrounding the Kurdish people have long sought to cripple their political power by a strategy of divide-and-conquer. But as existential threats against the Kurdish people grow in Turkey and Iran, the potential for a truly pan-Kurdish unity movement becomes possible, and a vital partnership between Western nations and the Kurdish governments of Iraq and Syria is further strengthened against regional forces of hatred and jihad. We invite our global partners to pray for the Prince of Peace to bring His peace among the Kurdish people, and that Kurdish unity would empower Kurdish security against the dire threats surrounding Greater Kurdistan in these tumultuous times.