ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Syrian minister believes that the planned elections in Kurdish-controlled regions are “a joke” and that the areas claimed by the Kurds “must” be retaken.
“[The elections] will be a joke. Syria will never ever allow any part of its territory to be separated,” Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said from Damascus in an interview with Reuters and BBC on Sunday.
The founding council of the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria announced in late July that they have set September 22 as the day for communal elections, and November 3 for local elections in villages, municipalities, cantons and towns. The council also declared that elections for the Northern Syria Democratic parliament will take place on January 1, 2018.
“We believe that in the north of Syria we have Syrian citizens who will not endanger the situation in the country or move ahead to any manifestation of dividing Syria,” Mekdad said. “Those who will move in those directions know what price they have to pay.”
Primarily, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) through its armed security forces and People’s Protection Units (YPG) secured areas in northern Syria in the midst of civil unrest that began in 2011. Capitalizing on the civil war and fight against ISIS, the PYD has sought further autonomy via confederalism.
“We of course only recognize the local councils established by the government of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Mekdad said. “There are special circumstances, and there may be councils that have been established a long time ago, but we don’t recognize them at all, except when it comes to some of the measures which must be done to facilitate the life of the people.”
Other Kurdish groups have opposed PYD’s actions. Nuri Brimo, a Kurdish National Council (KNC or ENKS) Central Committee member previously told Rudaw they were going to refrain from taking part in the “illegitimate” elections.
Through holding these elections, Brimo noted, “the PYD wants to legitimize the imposition.”
Mekdad was asked if the Syrian government was willing to reclaim Kurdish control areas.
He responded: “It is not a matter of ‘willing’ it is a matter of ‘must.’ ”
The United States and its global anti-ISIS coalition have been supporting the YPG in their fight against ISIS.
Mekdad believes it is the responsibility of the international community to maintain the unity of Syria and reiterated Damascus’s call for external countries to stop their funding of groups fighting in the conflict.
The United States announced it was formally ending covert support to provide arms and supplies to Syrian rebel groups aimed at toppling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad; however, it is continuing its support for anti-ISIS forces like those in the YPG.
The Syrian deputy FM added that the United States must stop its operations inside Syria, saying he believed it was illegal and its activities were costing “thousands of lives”.
According to bills passed by the Kurdish council, Rojava consists of three regions: Afrin in the west, Euphrates in the centre, and Jazira in the east.
“The Syrian government has no connections to these elections in which its dates have been set by [the Rojava self-government] and according to the Syrian constitutions, they are illegal,” Abdulqader Azuz, advisory to Syria’s Council of Ministries told Rudaw in an interview on July 31.
Russia and Iran have been the Assad regime’s primary backers.
“Coordination is ongoing between the Syrian and Russian sides at the highest levels and in different domains, and the process of announcing some of the procedures from here or from there is a technical process that is subject to many considerations, and we appreciate and understand that,” Mikdad said.
Syria has been embroiled in a six-year-long civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people according to the United Nations. However, Kurdish and Syrian regime forces have largely avoided all-out clashes.
