Kurdish groups want autonomy from the SNC

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Syrian Kurds hold up Kurdish flags, bottom, and a Syrian revolution flag, top, chant slogans against the Syrian regime. AP photo

Syrian Kurds hold up Kurdish flags, bottom, and a Syrian revolution flag, top, chant slogans against the Syrian regime.

Syrian Kurds want federalism and an autonomous government in the future Syria, and they won’t join the Syrian National Council (SNC) until their right to autonomy is recognized, a prominent member of the “National Kurdish Council” said.

“Most of the Syrian Kurdish parties are united under the roof of our council, we believe the Kurds who joined the SNC will quit soon, because the SNC calls the Kurds ‘Syrian people’ and this is unacceptable.

They are in denial of the Kurdistan territory,” Kendal Efrini, a member of Syrian opposition group the “National Kurdish Council,” told the Hürriyet Daily News in a recent interview.

Seventeen Syrian opposition Kurdish parties have announced the formation of their own “National Kurdish Council” in the northern Iraqi capital of Arbil at the end of January. Dr. Abdul Hakim Bashar, secretary-general of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria, led the National Kurdish Council, which became the second national council established by opposition forces after the establishment of the SNC.

Syrian Kurdish parties involved in the Kurdish National Council did not join the meetings organized in Istanbul in an effort to unite the Syrian opposition ahead of the “Friends of the Syrian People” meeting.

“The Syrian Arabs in the SNC claim the territorial integrity of Syria and they call all the ethnic groups ‘Syrian.’ We believe this is very dangerous rhetoric. Because with this wording, they are in denial of groups like the Kurds, Turkmens, etc,” Efrini said. The National Kurdish Council, which is also supported by the leader of the Kurdish regional government, Masoud Barzani, would only join the SNC with the condition of recognizing the right to “federalism” in the future Syria, he added.

“The number of Kurdish groups in the Kurdish council is increasing day by day. Now there are 17 Syrian Kurdish parties in the council. There are a couple of Kurdish groups in the SNC too, but I believe they will also quit the SNC soon. If not, they would be recognized as traitors by the Kurdish people,” Efrini said.