Senior Rojava official links violence in Homs to 'systematic' sectarian hate speech

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior Kurdish politician from northeast Syria's (Rojava) on Tuesday claimed that the recent violence in the country's central province of Homs earlier this week was caused by “systematic sectarian hate speech.”

"What happened in #Homs is the result of sectarian rhetoric and systematic hatred being promoted by certain parties,” Foza Alyusuf, a member of the leadership board of Rojava’s ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), said on X.

On Sunday, a man and his wife were found dead in their home in the town of Zaidel, south of Homs, the Syrian Interior Ministry reported. The incident reportedly stoked sectarian tensions.

The couple, reportedly from a Sunni Arab Bedouin tribe, “were found dead inside their home, and the wife’s body had been burned,” the province's Internal Security Chief, Marhaf al-Nussan was cited by the state media as saying on Sunday, adding that "sectarian slogans were also found at the crime scene, suggesting an attempt to incite strife among the residents.”

“This strategy #will end in a #sectarian war to destroy what remains and eliminate everything that binds Syrians together," Alyusuf said.

The situation has reportedly calmed.

The PYD leadership official also said that they "consistently emphasised in our meetings [with Damascus] the importance of holding those involved accountable. But, sadly, there has been no change.”

Kurdish officials from Rojava have repeatedly warned against sectarian conflict in the new Syria following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December last year.

Kurds have also said that the mass killings of Alawites and Druze earlier this year by forces affiliated with Damascus have alarmed them and strengthened their belief that Rojava’s security forces and the de facto military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), should not lay down their arms - a demand the transitional government has repeatedly made over the past year.

The PYD’s military arm, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), is the backbone of the SDF.

Najat Rochdi, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, on Sunday said she was closely monitoring the alarming developments in Homs, urging “the utmost need for calm to be restored, for protection of civilians, for upholding the rule of law, and for accountability for any perpetrators of violence.”

Homs, located 162 kilometers north of the capital Damascus, is Syria’s third-largest city and home to a diverse population of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Alawites, and Christians.