DAVOS, Switzerland — A group of Peshmerga from Rojava who received training in the Kurdistan Region have not been sent back to northern Syria in order to avoid bloodshed among Kurds, said Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, but he warned that there are limits to his patience.
"Not yet,” President Barzani said on Thursday when asked whether the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have opened the doors for the Rojava Peshmerga to go back to Syria. “I have said it time and again that Kurdish blood should never again be shed by fellow Kurds. Otherwise we would have sent them back a long time ago. But everything has its own limits. Like Arabs say 'even patience has its limits’."
The Kurdish National Council (KNC) has a 3,000-strong Rojava Peshmerga unit that was trained in the Kurdistan Region but the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) has prevented their entry into Rojava.
The KNC is the main opposition party to the ruling PYD in Rojava and the two parties have struggled for control in the region. Last August, several members of the KNC leadership were detained. The president of the KNC, Ibrahim Biro, was deported and warned not to return to Syria, he told Rudaw at the time.
Barzani also spoke about the KRG’s role in upcoming peace talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the nearly six-year Syrian civil war, which has international powers backing various factions within the country.
“The Kurdistan Region will not take part in Astana talks,” Barzani remarked. “We wanted to be assistive for Kurdish participation in it. We are not invited so the Kurdistan Regional Government is not going to take part in it. Overall, I am pessimistic about the future of Syria, as it has become very complicated. Unfortunately, I do not see a delightful future for Syria, nor the Kurds, in particular.”
Barzani expressed that there is no easy solution in Syria.
“It is a tough question as the Russia and America with their strength are stuck and cannot solve it,” he said. “It has become so complicated and needs time.”
Barzani made the remarks in a joint interview with Rudaw and Kurdistan 24 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum held in Davos.
He is in Davos to speak on a panel called ‘Syria and Iraq: Ending the Conflict,’ to take place Friday.
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