{"id":16133,"date":"2012-09-21T10:51:22","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T14:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=16133"},"modified":"2012-09-21T11:09:25","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T15:09:25","slug":"syrian-kurdistan-can-it-make-a-peaceful-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/syrian-kurdistan-can-it-make-a-peaceful-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian Kurdistan: Can it Make a Peaceful Transition?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nKurdish Children wave Kurdish flags in Syrian Kurdistan to be.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Muhammad Amin Penjweni,close friend of Ocalan, PPK leader<\/p><\/div>\n

PKK Advisor: PKK Wants to Liberate Parts of Turkey and Launch the Movement from There<\/a> \u2013 20\/09\/2012
\nRudaw<\/p>\n

Interview with Muhammad Amin Penjweni,\u00a0 a founding member of the Kurdish National Congress in Belgium and a member of the Presidency Council of the Kurdistan Parliament in Exile, an organization founded by the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK).[…]<\/p>\n

Penjaweni<\/strong>: The KDP and PUK leadership have to be careful and avoid becoming a part of a Shia or Sunni project, the latter of which is represented by Turkey.<\/p>\n

Rudaw<\/strong>: Because of the situation in Syria, there are some worries about a possible war between the KDP and PKK. Do you think that is possible?<\/p>\n

Muhammad Amin Penjweni<\/strong>: Due to the fact that the PKK leadership has been based in Syria for the past 20 years, they have a large number of followers there. Hundreds, if not thousands of PKK cadres are Syrian Kurds. The PKK has about 3,000 martyrs from Syrian Kurdistan.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Union Party (PYD) is a very active party in Syrian Kurdistan. Since the start of the uprising, the PYD\u2019s cadres have gone back into the general population and started organizing them. They have formed councils in all areas, and the councils have formed a bigger council called the People\u2019s Council. Now the People\u2019s Council has formed another council with the Kurdistan National Council (KNC), each with five members.<\/p>\n

The PYD has power there because Abdullah Ocalan was based in Syria for 20 years. I personally have visited the areas of Efrin, Qamishli, Darbasiya and Derek. This is the reality in Syrian Kurdistan, whether Turkey wants it or not. The freedom achieved there — whether by bravery, or the Syrian regime giving the areas up — is a development for the Kurdish question.<\/p>\n

As for civil war, most Syrian Kurds, including the PYD, remember the civil war in Iraqi Kurdistan. They all refuse civil war. I can certainly say that the PYD will never want to fight and will compromise to avoid a civil war. The PYD has decided to comply with whatever the joint council decides.<\/p>\n

Even with the issue of the flag, the council is planning to create a flag for all the Kurds of Syria. I do not see a problem in that regard. There are 20 Arab states, and each has its own flag. To me it is normal if the Syrian Kurds create their own flag and let the Supreme Council run their affairs.<\/p>\n

If the situation is run this way, and we on this side — I mean the Kurdistan Regional leadership — avoid meddling in their affairs, then there will be no civil war.<\/p>\n

Rudaw<\/strong>: Is there such meddling from the Kurdistan Region now?<\/p>\n

Muhammad Amin Penjweni<\/strong>: Yes, both the KDP and PUK are meddling. However, this meddling is to help prevent a civil war. I hope the situation continues as it is so there will be no possibility of a civil war, because civil war means delaying the Kurdish liberation movement for several decades.<\/p>\n

Turkey has now mobilized its forces and threatened to interfere in Syria. But I believe, due to many factors, that Turkey will not be able to militarily interfere in Syria now. The Kurds in Syria have formed a front; they can expand this front by forming alliances with the Christians, Druzes and Allavies that are residing in Kurdistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe, due to many factors, that Turkey will not be able to militarily interfere in Syria now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until now the Syrian opposition, which is a Muslim Brotherhood-type opposition, has not recognized Kurdish rights and they do not want to do anything for the Kurds in the future.<\/p>\n

Rudaw<\/strong>: Why do you think the PKK has escalated its fight with Turkey in the recent weeks?<\/p>\n

Muhammad Amin Penjweni<\/strong>: The PKK fight with Turkey has taken a new form. It has changed from a guerrilla fight to full frontal attacks. Turkey has preoccupied itself with some issues that have led to internal disagreements and people in Turkey consider their policies wrong.<\/p>\n

As for the issues related to the PKK, they believe that it is time for the Kurds to liberate a part of Turkish Kurdistan and start their movement there. This is an idea that has been circulating among PKK members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Journey To \u2018Syrian Kurdistan\u2019: Is This the Start of The Kurdish Empire? <\/a>
\nniqash | Aral Kakal | Syria | 20.09.2012<\/p>\n

The Syrian army have handed some parts of Syria over to the Kurdish, who now run those areas. But whose side are the Kurds really on? Does this mean they will establish their own nation? Aral Kakal spent several days in the \u201cnew Kurdistan\u201d. By Aral Kakal \/ Syria<\/p>\n

……Currently the closest the Kurdish get to their own country is the semi-autonomous state of Iraqi Kurdistan, which has its own Kurdish legislation, military and government.And doubtless many Kurds in Syria would like to see something similar happening there \u2013 whether the Syrian rebels or al-Assad or Turkey wants this or not.<\/p>\n

And whether the PKK has that political will to push for any kind of independence is also a further, complicated question. In the past, the al-Assad regime and the PKK have been closely allied. That was until a Syria-Turkey agreement saw them sidelined. Until the beginning of the revolution, the PKK were still blacklisted by the Syrian government. All this has changed relatively recently and many Syrians now see the PKK as allied with al-Assad again<\/p>\n

One former Arab resident of the Syrian north east says “they were well known as the hand of the government”.A correspondent for the New Yorker weekly magazine recently met Kurds in Syria who told him the PKK had forbidden them from joining the Syrian rebels.<\/p>\n

All of which seems to leave Syria’s north east under Kurdish control but their real allegiances unclear. Meanwhile, to find out what\u2019s really going on day to day, in north eastern Syria, Kurdish journalist and activist Aral Kakal and several of his colleagues went there for several days. This is what he saw.<\/p>\n

A Journey Into ‘New Kurdistan’ <\/strong><\/p>\n

To get across the border, we pretended we were going to Fish Khabour, 85 kilometres north of Dohuk, where we would visit some of the villages on the Iraq-Syria border. That was how we managed to get past the final government checkpoint in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.<\/p>\n

After walking about ten minutes down a dirt road, we found an armed man waiting for us with a truck. He was 25 years old, overweight and wore a green and black bandana tied around his forehead. He had come from Iraq to Syria to try and help the Syrian Kurds there.<\/p>\n

The young man drove us to the first Syrian village on this side of the border. My colleague, Farman Mohammed, works for one of the Kurdish satellite television stations and he happily told me that although we had just crossed an international border we had not needed our passports because we were moving from one part of \u201cGreater Kurdistan\u201d to another. For him, this dream \u2013 of a country called Kurdistan \u2013 is a long held one.<\/p>\n

There are about 60 houses here in this border village of Karbalat and there are also headquarters for Kurdish security in this area. More than 15 young men carrying guns are standing around. The youngest was 18, the oldest 25. Their collared shirts were not tucked in and some were wearing T-shirts, carrying gun magazines in their pockets. And from the way they were carrying their guns, we could tell they had had no, or very little, experience with them, or with warfare.<\/p>\n

After speaking to the Kurdish security staff there, we were introduced to Assad Jaoush, 45, who was familiar with the territory and who would guide us through the areas that had been liberated from the current Syrian regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

Jaoush wears military clothes and carries a Kalashnikov. As we toured the area he was happy to provide lots of information about what we were seeing. He pointed out that this area, the Jazira area in Syria\u2019s far northeast, is well known because it holds more than half of all of Syria\u2019s oil. Jaoush and his friend reckoned that after counting the oil wells in this region for four days, they thought there were thousands of them here.<\/p>\n

We also pass through another village, Wank, which was one of the first towns around here to be Arabized. This was a policy that former Syrian leader, Hafez al-Assad, had in common with neighbouring dictator Saddam Hussein. Both leaders tried to weaken the substantial Kurdish communities here by pushing Arabs from other parts of their countries in and moving Kurds out.<\/p>\n

Jaoush told us that the heads of the Arabized villages had come to the Kurds in the village of Datba, where he\u2019s from, two days ago and asked to stay in the area. The Arabs said that if they were able to stay they would even return the property that had been confiscated from the Kurds by the al-Assad government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe comrades of Datba decided to allow them to stay,\u201d Jaoush explains. \u201cBecause if we expelled them now then, given the current situation in the rest of Syria, they\u2019d probably be killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After this we travelled another 32 kilometres until we came to the first checkpoint manned by the actual Syrian army. This was at the small Syrian city of Derik, which was also known as Malikiya.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Jaoush had told us that the Syrian army still keeps some bases in this area but that their presence is really only a formality: the Kurds are in control here.<\/p>\n

Jaoush spoke to one of the soldiers there and we were allowed to pass. The soldiers were young and they looked weary and frightened. \u201cThey cannot really make a move or interfere without our approval,\u201d Jaoush explained.<\/p>\n

Since taking control of the Afrin, Kobani, Sari Kani and Derik areas in Syria\u2019s northeast, the Kurdish have set up their own independent administration. Jaoush confirmed that this administration was associated with Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish rebel leader who was one of the founding members of Kurdish separatist party, PKK, the Kurdish Workers Party, and who is currently serving a life sentence in Turkey for his association with the PKK. Here in Syria the PKK-associated movement has two wings, with the political side known as the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria and the military wing named the Popular Protection Units (or YPG).<\/p>\n

We were able to tour around Derik easily enough and were able to meet several local leaders. The mayor of the Derik district, Subhi Ali Elias, told us that he had been elected to the position by PYD\u2019s People\u2019s Council. \u201cThis organisation [the People\u2019s Council] is the highest authority here,\u201d Elias told us. \u201cIt also has institutions for youth issues, women\u2019s affairs, the arts and for teaching the Kurdish language. It also supervises municipal activities.\u201d Up until recently, no Kurdish language schools existed here, they were forbidden by the Syrian government.<\/p>\n

Another local, Havel Ahmad, told us he was a member of the local market council. The market place in Derik stays open late \u2013 and there are still a lot of pictures of the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad hanging on the walls and power poles.<\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network<\/a> explained recently that this was because the central Syrian government is still paying the salaries of civil servants and the Kurdish administrators were not ready to, and indeed could not afford to, remove all signs of al-Assad in the city.]<\/p>\n

\u201cOur market council was elected by the shop keepers here to administer the market,\u201d Ahmad explained. \u201cits main task presently is to prevent artificial inflation and stop merchants from manipulating prices.\u201d His market council was supervised by the more senior PYD council and there was also another council that acted as a legal court, Ahmad added.<\/p>\n

We were also able to meet the Kurdish local responsible for Derik\u2019s internal security, that is, the de-facto police force here. The ground floor of Derik\u2019s security headquarters has two cells and there was a prisoner in each one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have officers in all areas of Derik and we have control over the security here,\u201d the de-facto police chief confirmed. \u201cIn some cases we\u2019ve had to arrest troublemakers. But we resolve these problems using traditional [tribal] means, where we let the accuser and the alleged perpetrator meet one another and negotiate what would be suitable reparation. And we\u2019re the arbitrators. We\u2019ve had some 20 or 30 cases that needed to be resolved, as well as five instances of theft and we\u2019ve been able to resolve them all,\u201d he told us proudly.<\/p>\n

There is also another security force present here though and it seems more formidable. This is the YPG, which is supposed to come under the control of the Kurdish National Council in Syria [a political body that\u00a0 comprises all of the different Kurdish political parties in Syria]. The YPG is more like an army; its members wear black uniforms and khaki jackets and they completely cover their faces with scarves, leaving only their eyes visible.<\/p>\n

The YPG is commanded by a 30-year-old woman here. \u201cAll of the military in Derik is ours,\u201d she told NIQASH, while keeping her face similarly covered. \u201cIn Derik we have 300 soldiers and if there\u2019s any kind of emergency we can easily increase that number. We train our forces properly and every member is on duty for between five and 10 hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly there was one place that we didn\u2019t visit. This was the Baath political party\u2019s premises in Derik. We stopped the car out front but we didn\u2019t get out. Jaoush told us there was absolutely no point in doing so as the building \u2013 still decorated with al-Assad\u2019s picture and flying the Baath party colours \u2013 had been abandoned recently. This seemed to be true: the door to the building simply stood ajar. \u201cThey left the building a week ago and took everything with them,\u201d Jaoush said.<\/p>\n

However there was still some noticeable Syrian presence in the headquarters of Syrian security: we saw men on the roof and also guards at the doors.<\/p>\n

There are no hotels or guesthouses and during our stay in Derik, we were accommodated in a house that was just 150 metres away from the security headquarters. We managed to visit several locals\u2019 homes too and often we would see pictures of Abdullah Ocalan hanging on the walls.<\/p>\n

Every Friday there are anti-regime protests on the streets of Derik, organized by young Kurdish people who use loudspeakers to gather a crowd. Women stand on the left side and men on the right and then after the protests are finished, families simply return home again.<\/p>\n

And in general, it seemed to us that most people were just going about their daily business, going to work, coming home, having dinner \u2013 nothing seemed unusual about their lives here.<\/p>\n

Market council member Ahmad likes it this way. He told us that he believes that the Kurdish shouldn\u2019t give up these territories again, that they shouldn\u2019t let the al-Assad government back in here and that Syria\u2019s Arabs should also be persuaded that al-Assad no longer controls the country\u2019s northeast.<\/p>\n

It makes sense to him and no doubt, to many others here too. \u201cThe Kurds don\u2019t want to start a war with the regime and the regime doesn\u2019t want to open up a new front,\u201d Ahmad concludes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kurdish Children wave Kurdish flags in Syrian Kurdistan to be. PKK Advisor: PKK Wants to Liberate Parts of Turkey and Launch the Movement from There \u2013 20\/09\/2012 Rudaw Interview with Muhammad Amin Penjweni,\u00a0 a founding member of the Kurdish National Congress in Belgium and a member of the Presidency Council of the Kurdistan Parliament in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kurds","category-turkey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nSyrian Kurdistan: Can it Make a Peaceful Transition? - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/syrian-kurdistan-can-it-make-a-peaceful-transition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Syrian Kurdistan: Can it Make a Peaceful Transition? - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kurdish Children wave Kurdish flags in Syrian Kurdistan to be. 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