ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A top Syrian negotiator rejects the declaration of the federal region in Syria’s Kurdish enclave and describes the move as “unlawful action” that jeopardizes the country’s territorial integrity.
Ali Haidari , who is also the minister of national reconciliation, told Rudaw any action that would lead to the country’s disintegration “is doomed to fail,” since Syria has a “united land and nation and will remain so.”
“No side or group has the right to impose such a project that could cause the country’s breakup,” Haidari said referring to the Kurdish factions’ efforts for more self-rule in Syria’s northeastern corner.
The Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the main group in Syria’s Kurdistan and rules over an area also known as Rojava, declared on March 16 that the region was a federal entity within Syria.
The federal region encompasses the three main cities of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira, which previously were run as de facto autonomous cantons.
“Kurds are not even the majority in the areas where they have declared their federal system; they constitute less than 35 percent of the population there,” Haidari claimed.
The PYD has called the new region the Federation of Northern Syria-Rojava and says its government and society will remain polyethnic.
There are no accurate data about the number of different ethnic groups living in Rojava, since many of the Kurdish families in the area were stripped of their citizenship in the 1962 controversial census and were regarded as ”ajanib,” or foreigners.
In April 2011, the government announced it had granted the ajanib full Syrian citizenship.
The region is also home to large communities of Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Christian Syriacs and Yezidis, among others.
“In some of the areas Kurds are the minority which is why the federal system is not even appropriate,” Haidari said, adding that Syria’s “history and societal makeup” would reject federal systems.
The PYD was not invited to the peace talks in Geneva last month despite pressure from the US and Russia, mainly due to Turkey’s opposition to the Kurdish group, which Ankara sees as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The Syrian minister said that no agreements had been reached between Damascus and the opposition over key issues including President Bashar Assad’s removal or the so-called interim government.
“President Assad is the recognized leader of the country who was elected to the office and will remain there,” Haidari told Rudaw.
