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Syria
Sama Baghdash, spokesperson for PYD, speaks to Rudaw in Qamishli on December 19, 2021. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Russia is among the countries which want to end intra-Kurdish talks in northeast Syria (Rojava), spokesperson for Rojava’s ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) told Rudaw last week.
In an interview, conducted on December 19 and aired on Monday, Sama Baghdash told Rudaw’s Viviyan Fetah that “There are many parties that want to cause the failure of this dialogue such as Turkey, the regime and Russia.”
“Many do not want this dialogue to progress. There are many parties that benefit from disputes among Kurds. Therefore, I say that we have to come together and find a solution - no matter what happens,” she added.
The Kurdish National Council (ENKS) and the PYD have been in talks for nearly a decade in Rojava with the hope of reaching an agreement to create Kurdish unity there and jointly govern it. Despite reaching an initial deal in 2014, both sides have been engaged in a war of words for years, blaming each other for the failure of negotiations.
The talks resumed in late 2019 after Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), launched an initiative. The negotiations went very well in the first half of 2020, with both sides agreeing on many points such as formation of a unified position on Kurdish affairs as well as granting political freedom to the ENKS.
Russia is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russian officials have said several times that they support talks between Syrian Kurds and Damascus. Moscow has neither supported nor opposed Kurdish unity talks officially.
President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy to the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, discussed Syrian Kurds with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani earlier this month.
President Barzani told the Russian official that the “Syrian situation and crisis have a direct impact on Iraq situation, and the Kurdistan Region’s position has been clear from the beginning: Kurds have to resolve their issues within Syria and the existence of mutual understanding between Kurdish parties in Syria and the resolution of their issue is necessary and important, read a statement from Barzani's office.
The Rojava administration has been reportedly under pressure by Ankara and Moscow recently to engage with Damascus.
“We are now facilitating [the] negotiation process between SDF, Rojava, and the Syrian government. It is not an easy thing to be done,” Russia’s ambassador to Iraq said in October.
Bogdanov reportedly told the ENKS in late 2019 that his country wants Syrian Kurds to unify.
The intra-Kurdish talks have been stalled since summer 2020 when the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which reportedly has a link with Rojava administration, clashed in the Region’s Duhok province. The PKK-Peshmerga tensions have also affected the Kurdistan Region’s already-fragile ties with Rojava as well.
The PKK-Peshmerga tensions have also affected the Kurdistan Region’s already-fragile ties with Rojava as well, with the latest one being the closure of the only border crossing between both Kurdish administrations, Semalka, due to Peshmerga’s reported refusal to allow the transferring of the dead bodies of some PKK fighters, allegedly killed by Peshmerga earlier this year, to their hometowns in Rojava.
Sulaiman Oso, ENKS official, told Rudaw on December 11 that they have not met with the PYD at all in 2021, adding that the council’s meeting with the SDF and Americans continue.
Matthew Pearl, the newly-appointed US deputy special envoy to Syria, met with the ENKS in Rojava earlier this month, expressing his support for the intra-Kurdish talks.
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