US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack. Photo: File/AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Sunday that centralization, decentralization, and federalization are all "illusions." His Saturday assertion that decentralization has never worked in the Middle East, have sparked controversy.
"So, our view is really simple. There is no more educated, legacy, pedigree community in the world than the Iraqis from Mesopotamia. We leave it all for you to decide. There is no centralization, decentralization, federalization. These are all illusions of governments that were created," he told Rudaw on the sidelines of Doha Forum on Sunday.
"America's view is we need to leave all those decisions to the region. Whatever you all decide, we have policy, we have practice, we have parliament, we are in the middle of that process, we admire that process, and we leave it to you to decide," he added.
Barrack told reporters on the sidelines of the event the previous day that decentralization "has never really worked anywhere in this region," when asked if it is possible in new Syria.
His Saturday remarks sparked controversy on social media and northeast Syria's (Rojava) ruling body and the main opposition rejected his claim.
"When it is said that decentralization has not succeeded in the Middle East, we are facing a hasty conclusion that ignores the roots of the political crisis in the region. What has failed in the region is not decentralization, but on the contrary, it is the strict centralist model that has monopolized the state, marginalized society, and created the weakness we see today," Hassan Mohammed Ali, co-chair of Public Relations Office for Rojava's ruling Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), told Rudaw.
Fasyal Yousef, spokesperson for Rojava's main opposition umbrella group, the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC), also rejected Barrack's remarks.
"It was not decentralization that created the destruction, but rather the strict centralization practiced by the regimes of those countries, the deprivation of peoples of their national rights, their rejection of democracy and pluralism, and the crises and divisions they left behind, for which the peoples of the region are still paying the price today," he said in a Facebook post.
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