Negotiations Fail Between Kurds And Syrian Opposition

[Piling]

By: Ziad Haidar Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon).
اقرا المقال الأصلي باللغة العربية
Negotiations led by Syrian opposition member Michel Kilo between Kurdish fighters in Ras al-Ain, near the Turkish border, and Free Syrian Army (FSA) leadership have failed to reach a settlement, according to Kurdish parties and websites.
Kilo, along with other representatives of the National Coalition to Protect the Civil Peace, is mediating between the parties in order to end the fighting. This move has been described as “a step forward towards national reconciliation” between the two parties.
At the beginning of his meeting with the Kurdish Supreme Committee on Feb. 5, Kilo said “our visit is to resolve the crisis and a major problem,” a reference to the ongoing clashes that have raged for months between Kurdish fighters, FSA groups and other battalions of the Ghuraba al-Sham, who are said to be close to al-Qaeda.
According to Kurdish sources, Kilo said that “there are many international and regional powers that do not want a democratic or Islamic and not even a Kurdish regime. All they seek is a regime that serves their interests. Should this situation drag on, the revolution that millions of people are pinning their hopes on will morph into a civil war, as is the case in Lebanon. There is no sign of the Baathist regime in Ras al-Ain, but it will still not be the source of its downfall,” he added.
Ahmed Suleiman, spokesman for the Kurdish Committee, said that the ongoing opposition support for the clashes in Ras al-Ain will “veer the Syrian revolution off course and shatter Syrian society. The only beneficiary of all this is the Baathist regime. The recent events in Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) serve only the regime’s interests.”
According to the same sources affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) and Qamishli News, a Syrian-Kurdish website, the Supreme Kurdish Committee — the highest Kurdish body — rejected the FSA’s demands. The FSA had demanded that it run the entire city and its border outlets, and declared full control over them.
The Revolutionary Military Council in Hasaka province, claiming affiliation with the FSA, demanded that the Kurdish flag be lowered and that the city be handed over to the opposing Syrian National Coalition (SNC), as a prerequisite for maintaining the fragile truce with those whom the FSA labeled Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters.
As a condition of the truce, the Kurdish side would be required to recognize the SNC, as “it is the sole party concerned with managing the country politically and administratively. The PKK fighters are also required to withdraw from Ras al-Ain back to their barricades in the regions from which they came. The FSA shall remain in the city, since the Revolutionary Military Council is considered as the legitimate representative of Ras al-Ain and its surroundings. A local council is to be formed including all the city’s different groups and factions.”
Moreover, “the FSA is not to confront any of the people in Ras al-Ain and its countryside. The FSA will be, in turn, responsible for securing the passage of people and goods in Hasakah areas, which are under its control. It will also control the border crossing in the region. Finally, the flag of independence shall be the only flag to be raised in squares and streets in Hasakah province, which suggests that Kurds must remove their own flags that have been place on rooftops in Qamishli since the beginning of the crisis.”
The Kurdish committee rejected these conditions, according to the same sources. The Kurdish side had different prerequisites for a permanent cease-fire. The Kurdish committee requested “to be involved in managing the region’s affairs, along with other groups, put an end to armed demonstrations through the withdrawal of all battalions affiliated with both sides from the region. Kurds also demanded the formation of a joint administration, made up of the different factions in Ras al-Ain, securing the transfer of people and goods from and to the city, as well as compensating the victims of the clashes.”
In this context, Kurdish news sites said that “a border crossing was opened yesterday between Syria and the Kurdistan region of Iraq, in order to stimulate economic activities in the Syrian Kurdish areas with the Iraqi Kurdish areas.” The Supreme Kurdish Committee has monitored the opening of the Fish Khabur-Simalka gateway.
The spokesman for the Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC), Shalal Kido, said that “the Syrian-Kurdish Supreme Committee has decided to open the Fish Khabur-Simalka border crossing to serve as a commercial gateway between Syria and the Kurdistan region.”
He added that “the coming days will witness a temporary military presence to connect both sides of the Tigris River, which runs along the Syria-Iraq border in the region, in order to facilitate the transport of goods between the two sides.”
“The crossing management on the Syrian side has prepared a list of symbolic custom duties on commercial goods that will enter through the gateway. The financial resources will be transferred to the Kurdish Supreme Committee, which is leading the Kurdish movement in Kurdish and Syrian cities and is the legitimate group responsible for the crossing on the Syrian side," he said.


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[Anthea]

These negotiations will always fail. Kurds in WK have been trying to declare independence for years and it is only recently that the Arabs have decided to join in the fight and take it to the present uncontrollable level.

Kurds in WK are the most badly treated of all the Kurds, and the most forgotten. And by far the most hated by others living in the same country. Turks and Kurds have sometimes got on reasonably well together and some even married. Some Kurds have married Iraqi Arabs. The same occasionally happens in Iran. In Syria there is little or no inter-marriage. Or as one Syrian once said that he would rather he daughter die than marry a dog.

[Piling]

Kurds in WK have been trying to declare independence for years

The problem is that WK is made with 3 small regions separated each others by Arab areas. All maps watching a continuous Kurdish land in Syria are wrong. Hard to be independent with a such geography.

[Anthea]

Kurds in WK have been trying to declare independence for years

The problem is that WK is made with 3 small regions separated each others by Arab areas. All maps watching a continuous Kurdish land in Syria are wrong. Hard to be independent with a such geography.

I know that the Syrian regime purposefully placed Arabs on the borders to the separate Kurds and tried to push them into easily controlled regions claiming much of the traditional Kurdish land for themselves

I would love to find a comprehensive map of mineral deposits and oil reserves in the Middle East, as almost all the extremely rich oil reserves appear to be in traditional Kurdish land.

[Shirko]

These negotiations will always fail. Kurds in WK have been trying to declare independence for years and it is only recently that the Arabs have decided to join in the fight and take it to the present uncontrollable level.

Kurds in WK are the most badly treated of all the Kurds, and the most forgotten. And by far the most hated by others living in the same country. Turks and Kurds have sometimes got on reasonably well together and some even married. Some Kurds have married Iraqi Arabs. The same occasionally happens in Iran. In Syria there is little or no inter-marriage. Or as one Syrian once said that he would rather he daughter die than marry a dog.

Anthea, I do not know were you get your information from. But your statement about the Kurds in WK being to most hated is simply not true, actually the Kurds in WK in Syria are not hated like you say, and
they marry each other all the time. btw the greatest hero of all time and the Sultan of Demascus was a Kurd, Salah Addin

[Shirko]

Actually if you look at Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq, Syria did the least damage to Kurds than all of them. So tell me, wete did you get your information from? You spoke to one syrian bastard that called Kurds dogs, but he will kiss my foot if I see him fave to face even in Demascus.

[Anthea]

Actually if you look at Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq, Syria did the least damage to Kurds than all of them. So tell me, wete did you get your information from? You spoke to one syrian bastard that called Kurds dogs, but he will kiss my foot if I see him fave to face even in Demascus.

Some things that I have picked up over the years from my students and facts that I have learnt from various places. Unfortunately, there is probably less known about Kurds in WK than in other areas. The division of the land and the placing of Arabs along the borders are well known facts as are the facts that Kurds had NO rights at all in Syria.

Fore most of the time Kurds were non-people, not citizens, not anyone or anything in Syrian law. As non-people they were not allowed their language or any of the rights Kurds in other places were also denied. But were treated a great deal worse than many other Kurds. True they did not suffer from large scale chemical attacks but other than that a great deal of the treatment they received was far worse from both the Syrian regime and the Syrian people themselves.

[Shirko]

Seems like propaganda that both Turkey and Assads ragime hope to use against the Kurds, because they do not want to see a peaceful settlement in WK and they want to see an ethnic battle between the Arabs and Kurds. The crimes committed in Syria against Kurds was done by the Aliwite ragime, because they hate all Sunnis Kurds and Arabs. And many Kurds are leaders and well respected in all of Syria, so your ideas are not correct.

[Piling]

Most of Syrian Arabs are not racist like Turks and they have no hate toward Kurds. Turkey is really a specific society.

[Anthea]

Seems like propaganda that both Turkey and Assads ragime hope to use against the Kurds, because they do not want to see a peaceful settlement in WK and they want to see an ethnic battle between the Arabs and Kurds. The crimes committed in Syria against Kurds was done by the Aliwite ragime, because they hate all Sunnis Kurds and Arabs. And many Kurds are leaders and well respected in all of Syria, so your ideas are not correct.

Assad is a member of the Syria’s Ruling Alawite Sect so I do not understand your comment?

In every country where Kurds live there are always those who become successful. there are many successful Kurdish business people and well known Kurdish singers in Turkey

[Shirko]

Anthea, I can't help you understand with a quick reply, thiere are many great unbiased studies and articles written by experts on this subject with out any propaganda.

And somtimes you say insulting things, like Kurds are treated as dogs and that Syrians don't marry them, that is completely false.

And you called Mr. Ahmed Turk an old crazy man. He is only 70 years old, so hopefully he still has many good years left. And he is one of the most respected Kurdish leaders, and he also happens to be a grand son of a comander in the Hamideya forces (Kurdish cavalry involved in the Armenian conflict), so he has every right to speak for Kurds regarding this issue. And that was a wise and brave move, it will not hurt to try and heal old wounds the Armenians from both sides, and it shows Kurdish leadership independent of Turkish policy.

[Anthea]

Anthea, I can't help you understand with a quick reply, thiere are many great unbiased studies and articles written by experts on this subject with out any propaganda. And somtimes you sayvinsulting things, like Kurds are treated as dogs and that Syrians don't marry them, that is completely false.

I stand by this statement and would refute any studies to the contrary.

And you called Mr. Ahmed Turk an old crazy man. He is only 70 years old, so hopefully he still has many good years left. And he is one of the most respected Kurdish leaders, and he also happens to be a grand son of a comander in the Hamideya forces (Kurdish cavalry involved in the Armenia conflict), so is has every right tp speak for Kurds regarding this issue. And that was a wise and brave move, it will not hurt to try and heal old wounds from both sides, and it shows Kurdish leadership and independent of Turkish policy.

I have said myself that Ahmed Turk is one of the most respected and most protected Kurdish political figures. I have nothing but praise for all that he has done in the past. You have to remember that it is in the past. he no-longer holds such a powerful position and has a much more minor political role. FACT

And yes he is getting old. That is also a sad FACT. One can only surmise that he believes himself to still be in the powerful position he once held. However, as a now minor political figure, he is most certainly NOT in a position to speak on behalf of the entire Kurdish nation.

[Piling]

he is most certainly NOT in a position to speak on behalf of the entire Kurdish nation

In fact no one could beg pardon for a genocide happened 100 years ago. Kurds today are not guilty of what some of them did in 1915. No one should be charged for its grand grand father's deed. And also who is allowed to forgive except the victims themselves ? Not their grand grand children…

Then it is like speaking on behalf of dead people in the aim to obtain forgiveness from other dead people.

What is courageous from him is to say the forbidden name 'GENOCIDE', a taboo in Turkey. But telling : 'there was a genocide, some Kurds participated and among them my grand-father, and I am sorry of that' would have been enough. After all, no one can accuse Ahmet Türk to perpetrate Armenian's hatred, at the contrary.

[Shirko]

Yeah I think France and th UK should apoligize to the Kurds for the borders they imposed on us 100 years ago. So therefore, im sure that tbe Armenian decendants appreciated the apology

[Anthea]

Yeah I think France and th UK should apoligize to the Kurds for the borders they imposed on us 100 years ago.

At last we agree on something

Every time I hear English people complain about all the refugees in UK, I explain the way that Kurds were treated and the fact that almost all of the problems Kurds have are caused by that division.