An agreement through US pressures, this is how a reliable source described the announcement made a few days ago between the northern Syrian self-rule administration and the Kurdish National Council.
The source points out that the concepts of uniting the visions of all the Syrian people is no more than a media storm, especially as both parties control most of the Kurdish authority and left no more than 20 % of the representation for other parties.
On June 16, the two parties announced in a joint statement forming the Kurdish political bloc and uniting the armed Kurdish militias in the Syrian Jazeera. The agreement was made according to the Duhok agreement, signed between the Kurdish parties in 2014.
The source confirms that completing the dialogue between the Kurdish sides and reaching results even if they are at the minimum level of understanding is in a US interest for the region in general, especially as both parties are political leaders of armed groups supported by the US, in reference to the Peshmerga and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Separation Attempt
By uniting the militias in the northern region, the agreement is paving the way for one of two things: The first is a separatist project that includes the Syrian Jazeera, also known as the west of Kurdistan. The second is creating the foundations of a federal reality on an ethnic basis in the entire region of north Syria, similar to the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In eastern Syria, several armed militias are present, the most prominent of which are the Syrian Democratic Forces, (SDF) and the Peshmerga. Both militias seek unification under the name of “The Forces of Protecting and Defending Rojava”.
The source also indicates that the agreement is based on the Duhok contract and focuses only on the Kurds, their agreements and issues, but not on any other Syrian component, or even components present in the eastern region of Syria such as Syriacs, Arabs and Assyrians.
The Dohuk agreement provides for the formation of a Kurdish political bloc, in which the representation of the democratic society movement is 40 %, while the Kurdish National Council 40 % too, whereas other Kurdish parties and forces that are not involved in the two political bodies, will have 20%.
Foreign, not Syrian
The affiliation of each of the two negotiating parties and their connections with the Kurdish regional powers, whether in Turkey or Iraq, prompted the Syrian political analyst, Muhannad al-Qate’e, to say that the agreement was made directly between a Turkish party affiliated with the PKK and another Syrian Kurdish party supported by the government of northern Iraq.
The analyst believes that what is stated in the agreement does not correspond with the concept of national unity and establishes unilateral national control, paving the way for secession, according to Baladi News network.
The north-eastern region of Syria, up to the Mediterranean, is part of what the Kurdish parties consider as the Great Kurdistan, which the PKK and many other Kurdish parties are seeking to establish and separate its lands from Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
In this context, the source add that focusing on the issue of attachment to the Syrian crisis is an attempt to obtain a place for these forces within the Syrian committees for drafting the Syrian constitution and imposing an ethnic reality in the Syrian political equation.
“All Kurdish political moves aim to consolidate the idea that the Kurds in Jazeera are a majority and have the right to found their own federal government, which is completely inconsistent with the goals of the Syrian revolution, demanding freedom and justice for all Syrian components, and establishing a democratic system,” the source explains.
US Pressure and Suspicious Moves
The Syrian National Democratic Bloc describes the agreement as an “external agreement made on Kurdish shoulders,” as it clearly indicates that the negotiating parties are not independent.
Some 700 Syrian opposition figures issued a statement rejecting the dialogue between the two Kurdish parties, which they considered an exploitation to develop the idea of self-administration into autonomy. Among the figures that signed the rejection are the president of the Kurdish Independence Association, Abdel Aziz Tammo, Burhan Ghalyoun, and Riyadh Hejab, in addition to some other prominent figures.
The bloc believes the agreement is a separatist attempt, as it seeks seizing part of the Syrian land and ignoring its population and ethnic diversity.
“The national consensus is a positive and necessary need for building a new Syria according to the general national will; this is what we did not notice in the recent Kurdish move,” the bloc explains in its announcement.
The bloc has also described the agreement as a monopoly, unilateralism, and a threat to the unity of Syria that might pave the way for a continual conflict. It also condemned what it called external intervention and pressures trying to undermine the unity of the people and the land.
