{"id":132934,"date":"2025-12-06T16:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/?p=132934"},"modified":"2025-12-06T16:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:49:18","slug":"kurdish-official-responds-to-u-s-envoys-comments-on-decentralization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/132934\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurdish official responds to U.S. envoy\u2019s comments on decentralization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) <\/strong>\u2013 A senior Kurdish official responded on Saturday to recent statements by Thomas Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria, in which he said decentralization has not succeeded in the Middle East or the Balkans. The remarks drew criticism from Faisal Yusuf, spokesperson of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS), who argued that historical context contradicts that assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yusuf, speaking on behalf of the ENKS, said Barrack\u2019s comparison to the experiences of Iraq, former Yugoslavia, and Lebanon overlooked \u201can essential and obvious fact.\u201d In a written statement, he said, \u201cIt was not decentralization that caused destruction, but the strict centralization practiced by the regimes of those states, depriving peoples of their national rights and rejecting democracy and pluralism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added that the resulting crises and divisions \u201care still being paid for by the peoples of the region to this day,\u201d noting that the legacy of the Sykes\u2013Picot Agreement continues to shape political tensions in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yusuf stated, \u201cThe solution is clear and simple: democracy, decentralization, and enabling peoples to manage their own affairs,\u201d emphasizing that returning to \u201cold formulas that have proven their failure\u201d would not lead to stability. He also said that prolonged discussions in Syria and other countries over governance models have shown the limits of centralized authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ENKS official stressed that successful examples worldwide demonstrate the effectiveness of decentralized systems. \u201cThere is no doubt that Mr. Barrack knows that the most successful experiences are decentralization models that preserved stability and fostered development and prosperity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Debates over decentralization remain central to Syria\u2019s political process, especially in regions administered by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Governance structures in northeast Syria, supported by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have repeatedly highlighted decentralization as a framework for stability, local representation, and improved public services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>By Atoun Jan<\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) \u2013 A senior Kurdish official responded on Saturday to recent statements by Thomas Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria, in which he said decentralization has not succeeded in the Middle East or the Balkans. The remarks drew criticism from Faisal Yusuf, spokesperson of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS), who argued that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":132935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-syria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kurdish official responds to U.S. envoy\u2019s comments on decentralization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) \u2013 A senior Kurdish official responded on Saturday to recent statements by Thomas Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria, in which\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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