ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Syria’s Kurds, who unilaterally declared autonomy last month over three provinces, said Tuesday they have formed a municipal council in one of those regions.
The Kurdish canton of Cizire said that the local government would have its own president and 22 ministries.
The declaration came after a meeting of the Legislative Assembly of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) in Amude. Similar councils are to be named for the other two cantons, Afrin and Kobani.
According to Firatnews, 52 parties, civil society organization, youth and women’s movements and 15 independent individuals attended the assembly meeting.
The 22 ministries declared by the Gizire canton include the ministries of foreign relations, defense and youth affairs.
The assembly also elected Ekrem Heso, a Kurd, as president. His two vice presidents are Elizabet Gewriye, a Syriac, and Husen Ezem, an Arab.
The declaration of autonomy coincides with the troubled Geneva II conference, which opens in Switzerland on Wednesday and is aimed at finding solutions for the Syrian conflict.
After months of mediation by the Kurdistan Regional Government and prominent Kurdish politicians from Turkey, the Syrian Kurdish People’s Council and Kurdistan National Council (KNC) agreed last month to attend the Geneva meeting under a united banner.
World powers ignored a Kurdish demand for their own seat at the conference and denied entry to the leader the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the dominant Kurdish force in Syria.
Facebook and Twitter accounts showed pictures of thousands of people in Rojava, celebrating the declaration of autonomy.
Turkey, which has a large Kurdish population, rejected a unilateral declaration of autonomy over Syria’s Kurdish lands by the PYD last month. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) likewise has rejected the unilateral autonomy declaration, without the consent of all Syrian Kurdish parties.
