PYD’s Muslim says no plan for founding a Kurdish state

Uğur Ergan / ANKARA

Reuters Photo

The People’s Protection Units (YPG), the military wing of Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), have no intention of creating a “Kurdish corridor” that would supposedly lay the ground for the foundation of an independent Kurdish state, PYD leader Salih Muslim has stated.

“Let me say right away that we don’t have a project aimed at founding a Kurdish state,” Muslim said when asked to comment on Ankara’s increasing concerns over Syrian Kurds’ quest for their own autonomous Kurdish state on Syria’s border with Turkey.

“God has placed Kurds in Syria by the border with Turkey. Kurds are living there too. What should we do – shall we leave our soil, our homeland just because the Turkish state is annoyed?” Muslim asked.

“These [fears] are groundless and shameful,” Muslim said, as he referred to recent news reports in some Turkish dailies which suggested that “the PYD is more dangerous than the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).”

“Our concern is protecting ourselves, our people from the treachery of ISIL,” he said.

Agencies and media reports say PYD forces are heading toward Raqqa, the de-facto ISIL capital in Syria, after routing the jihadists from the key town of Tal Abyad in northern Syria, which is located by the Turkish border. 

ISIL was engaged in brutal activity by the border, Muslim said. 

“Such a discourse may have only one aim, which is to cause trouble between Arabs and Kurds in the region,” he said, referring to the recent claims. 

“This soil is where Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens will live in peace. Thus, Ankara should not be concerned about different and intentional statements,” he said. “People who went to Turkey from Tal Abyad are now returning to their hometown. What is bad about it?”

The coalition powers led by the U.S. are supporting the PYD because they consider it the most trustworthy group in the region, he said. 

Europe also trusts the PYD, Muslim added.