Federalism; is this U-turn for Kurds in Syria?

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Recently a leading member of the Kurdish resistance movement in Syria spoke openly about the federal system as a solution to the Kurdish question in the country. 

 

At the broad-based Kurdish congress in Amude, Syria, on February 12, the co-leader of the Democratic Society Movement (Tevdem), Aldar Xelil, spoke for the first time about preparation to officially declare federalism as their choice of the political system in the country.

 

What makes this statement new and important is that Tevdem is an umbrella for many Kurdish groups including the most powerful of them, the PYD, or the Democratic Union Party, which is the superior political wing of the armed group the YPG, or the Peoples’ Protection Units.

 

The PYD has largely avoided the question of self-determination for Kurds or federalism for Syria over the past four years-- understandably perhaps, since it had no better option, it chose to wait and see.

 

Unlike most other regions in Syria which were usually taken from government forces after bloody clashes, the PYD took control of its Kurdish enclave not as a result of fighting with the Syrian army, but rather in coordination with the regime in Damascus which basically left the Kurdish areas in the hands of a group very much influenced and formed by the PKK. 

 

To the disadvantage of PYD, being affiliated with the PKK meant it could not invest in the trust of its too powerful northern neighbor, Turkey, although Ankara did not show its full distrust immediately, as until recently PYD leader Salih Muslim was a frequent visitor to Turkey.

 

But now things have changed. In the mayhem surrounding them with no one to trust, the Kurds have found an ally in the US, which has shown its commitment to the PYD despite Turkey’s concerns. In many ways, this is historical for the US-Kurdish relations, since Washington has rarely, if ever, prioritized even its more powerful Kurdish allies in Iraq over Baghdad.

 

Perhaps, the US would even back the PYD if the Syrian army tried to retake the areas it trustingly left in the Kurdish hands.

 

“The conditions in Syria are different from before the uprising (2011). Kurds have a position that they never have enjoyed in the past and may never again experience in the future,” Syrian Kurdish author Ahmed Qasim told Rudaw.

 

Qasim said the fact that Kurds are one of the few forces fighting ISIS “with conviction” has given them a “strategic importance” in their relation with the US which will remain concerned of religious terrorism in the Middle East.

 

As they fight on, the YPG along with other forces of the Democratic Syria are getting closer to the gates of Hasaka and Aleppo. This will famously connect the separated cantons of Afrin and Kobani and give Kurds the territorial sovereignty that is very much needed to declare a political entity in Syria’s Kurdistan.    

 

“The Syrian revolution has dismantled the central rule once and for all,” top PYD advisor, Sihanok Dibo, told Rudaw.

 

“As a historical responsibility, the Syrians need to take a different route to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,” Dibo said.  

 

One route is undoubtedly the federal system.