The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), the largest political force in northeastern Syria, warned on Tuesday of Turkish influence in the Syrian political transition and criticized the fact that the new authorities in Damascus have not contacted it to participate in this process.
The armed Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), which overthrew the regime of Bashar al Assad on the 8th of this month - which enjoyed Iranian political and military support - began a process of political transition in the country and promised to allow the participation of all components of society.
Turkish influence
“They have not communicated directly with the Autonomous Administration (the de facto authority in northeastern Syria), and they have not responded to their attempts to contact us,” said Aldar Jalil, a member of the PYD Executive (social democrat and created in 2003), although he acknowledged the existence of indirect contacts between HTS and Kurdish leaders.
Jalil believes that the new authorities view the Kurds with “Turkish eyes” and that Turkey is intervening, in his opinion, directly, through the recurrent visits of its officials to Damascus, to prevent any role for the Kurds in the transition process and in the future of Syria.
“Syria is passing from Iranian rule to Turkish rule,” he lamented.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the fact that Syria's new leaders have "ties with Türkiye" and promised to step up contacts with Damascus.
“We look with pride at those who are taking up positions in the new Syrian government. We see in various positions people who have studied in Turkey and are connected to our homeland,” Erdogan said after the Turkish government meeting.
Transition in the midst of war
In the Syrian Kurdistan region, extensive consultations have been initiated, both among Kurdish currents and between them and representatives of other components such as Arabs and Syriacs, in order to formulate a unified position that will serve as a reference for any future dialogue with HTS on the political transition.
Jalil said that the basis of any dialogue must be the existence of guarantees that protect the peoples of northeastern Syria from Turkish threats and those of related Syrian factions, and that the horizon of the transition process must be the construction of a democratic and decentralized political system that recognizes all the components of the Syrian people within the framework of a united Syria.
Factions of the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA), loyal to Turkey, have been launching continuous attacks for weeks against the positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, Kurdish self-defense forces) in northeastern Aleppo, causing dozens of deaths on both sides.
The situation remains tense northeast of Aleppo and the SDF launched a counterattack on Monday to repel SNA rebel factions from the vicinity of the strategic Tishrin dam and destroyed several advanced positions of these pro-Turkish forces.
Given this situation, Jalil considered that talking about dissolving the SDF as demanded by Turkey and the new Syrian authorities is premature, and affirmed that this self-defense force is indispensable in the face of Turkish threats and the growth of the activities of the Islamic State (IS).
The Kurdish experience
The Kurdish leader defended the experience of the Autonomous Administration established in northeastern Syria, and urged other Syrian regions to draw inspiration from it and to extend it throughout the country, due to its ability to manage diversity in a democratic manner.
Faced with the deterioration of the Syrian regime's control over the provinces of northeastern Syria due to the popular uprisings that shook the country in the context of the Arab Spring, the PYD and its partners established an autonomous administration in 2013 to manage the affairs of the region, which represents approximately one third of Syrian territory.
“If the parties in other parts of Syria are serious about finding a comprehensive solution, the best proposal is the project of democratic autonomous administration because it has succeeded in ensuring security and stability,” added Jalil, who is considered the architect of this experience.
Jalil also criticised the “ambiguity” of Western countries in the face of new developments in Syria, which deal with HTS but at the same time continue to classify it as a terrorist organisation. “If they are sincere in their concern for the future of Syria, instead of relying on ambiguous projects, they should pay attention to the project of autonomous administration as a model of governance for the whole of Syria.”
Jalil also denied the existence of any direct organisational relationship between his party and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK, Turkey), while defending his political movement's adherence to the philosophy of the group's founder, Abdullah Öcalan.
"They accuse us of having a relationship with a terrorist organization, but there is no proof of this, while Western countries maintain relations with HTS, which is on the terrorist lists, while we are not on those lists," he added. EFE