Expulsion of SDF from northeast Syria unrealistic: Kurdish politician
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Wednesday, a Syrian Kurdish politician described a Syrian opposition call to expel the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from northeast Syria as irrational and unrealistic.
Kawa Azizi, a professor in faculty of political science at Salah al-Din University in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG), said in a statement to North Press that the SDF is an ally of United States and they both have participated in expelling ISIS from the east of the Euphrates.
Nasr Hariri, head of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, called in a televised speech on August 8 for the USA to expel the SDF from northeastern Syria.
Hariri said that the area should be handed over to local councils of the coalition, on the basis that the opposition’s Syrian National Coalition is the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
“No one is interested in his call, in particular, USA who is ongoing to support SDF in pursuing ISIS remnants,” Azizi said.
US sponsorship of Kurdish dialogue
In another context, the university professor said that the United States sponsors the ongoing negotiations and dialogues between the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) and Kurdish national unity parties, so they do not pay any attention to such statements.
Kurdish reconciliation talks, launched at the behest of SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi last year, aim to unite the leading Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Kurdish National Council (ENKS), which is a member of the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition coalition. The talks are based on the framework laid down by the two parties in the 2014 Duhok Agreement, which was signed in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to establish a new administration in Syria’s predominantly Kurdish north; the agreement was never implemented due to disputes between the two signatories.
Kawa Azizi denied that the Kurdish National Council supported Hariri’s position.
The Kurdish National Council joined the Syrian opposition coalition in 2014 and has a permanent position in its presidency, but Azizi considers the council an independent body and a representative of the Kurdish component within the coalition.
“Coalition councils that Nasr Hariri talked about have displaced the Kurds and confiscated their money in Afrin, Tel Abyad (Gre-Spi) and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain),” Azizi said. “It has replaced them with other communities and carried out demographic change in those areas; this is considered a violation of Kurdish national rights and a war crime.”