Kurds could help shift course of war in Syria

[Anthea]

The head of Turkey's main Kurdish party has welcomed contacts between the Ankara government and Syria's Kurds, saying it could step up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and help change the course of the civil war,



Turkish intelligence officers met in Istanbul last week with Saleh Muslim, head of Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Kurdish group whose militias have been fighting for control of parts of Syria's north near the Turkish border.

The meeting followed Muslim's declaration that Kurdish groups would set up an independent council to run Kurdish areas of Syria until the war ends. Ankara fears that kind of autonomy could rekindle separatist sentiment among its own, much larger Kurdish population as it seeks to end a 30-year-old insurgency.

"Saleh Muslim's visit to Istanbul is a concrete sign that Turkey is moving towards changing a policy that sees Kurds as a menace," Selahattin Demirtas, head of parliament's Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), told Reuters in an interview.

"It won't just affect Turkish-Kurdish relations but also the course of events in Syria by creating pressure on the regime," he said.

"Kurds can be effective in Syria, and we need to increase support for them. Western countries, including the United States, should establish proper ties with Syria's Kurds."

Turkey is one of the strongest backers of the rebels seeking to topple Assad in a war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since March, 2011.

Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority has been alternately battling Assad's forces and the Islamist-dominated rebels for control of parts of the north.

Turkey wants assurances from the PYD that it will not threaten border security or seek an autonomous region in Syria through violence, and that it will maintain a stance of firm opposition to Assad, officials said.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday warned the group against any "wrong and dangerous" moves that could hurt Turkish security.

PEACE AT HOME

Demirtas is a main player in Turkey's efforts to resolve a conflict on its own soil with Kurdish militants in which more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since 1984.

The 40-year-old party leader has shuttled to the island prison that has held Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), since his conviction for treason in 1999 and has delivered the rebel leader's messages to his armed followers in northern Iraq.

The PKK - considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union - announced a ceasefire in March to encourage talks with Ocalan, seen as the best chance yet to end one of the world's longest-running guerrilla wars.

"He is like a good chess player. He makes his move by predicting the next eight or 10 moves in advance," said Demirtas, who met Ocalan for the first time on Imrali this year.

Running red worry beads through his hands, he described Ocalan as a master of Middle Eastern politics and connoisseur of literature, philosophy, art and history.

In recent weeks the rebels have warned that Erdogan's government must show greater commitment if the ceasefire is to hold, and address Kurdish grievances by expanding political and cultural rights.

The BDP expects legislative action by October, when parliament reconvenes after a summer recess, on demands for the release of thousands of party members in detention on terrorism charges, stronger local rule and Kurdish-language education.

Turkey banned the use of Kurdish, a distinct language related to Farsi, outright until 1991 and has only recently allowed it to be used in radio and television broadcasts.

Authorities strictly control access to Ocalan, limiting him to infrequent meetings with family, his lawyers and BDP members involved in the peace process. Supporters would like to see him moved out of his small cell to meet with civic groups and the media, as well as for a hospital to open on Imrali.

Conditions for the 64-year-old Ocalan must be improved or his frail health could imperil the peace process, Demirtas warned, saying eventually he should be freed.

"If there is going to be peace in Turkey, if the enmity is to end, if we're going to have forgiveness, then this should happen," he said. "When this peace process is fulfilled and things normalize, no one is going to keep him there."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/ ... FW20130729

The BDP expects legislative action by October, when parliament reconvenes after a summer recess, on demands for the release of thousands of party members in detention on terrorism charges, stronger local rule and Kurdish-language education.

Anthea: If Turkey had any commitment to a peace process why would it have kept all the political prisoners in prison throughout the summer recess - surely it would have been more beneficial to have released them as a sign of good will - I do not believe Turkey has any good will towards Kurds - PLEASE someone prove me WRONG

As for improved mother tongue teaching and media - those have nothing to do with the non-existent peace plan - these are requirements of the EU

[Aslan]

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Democratic Union Party (PYD) has reassured Ankara that his group’s call for a local administration in Syria’s Kurdish regions does not mean that the group is looking to divide Syria.

Salih Muslim, leader of the PYD, met with Turkish officials last week, marking a major policy change between two sides deeply suspicious of each other.

Muslim who flew to Turkey from Erbil, told the media that he was in Turkey to allay Ankara’s concerns over Kurdish separatism, and to explain why the Syria’s Kurdish regions needed a local administration to run their own affairs.

"Kurds will need to have a status in the new order in Syria,” Muslim told Anadolu News Agency. “But what's in question now is a provisional arrangement until we arrive at that phase. It's not about making a constitution, but practical rules are necessary.”

Muslim told Turkish officials that a local administration would include other ethnic groups such as Christians, Turkmen and Arabs who live in the Kurdish-majority areas in northeastern Syria.

“Our thought is to establish a provisional council of 40 to 50 -- maybe a hundred people,” he said. “This council will comprise Kurds, Syriacs, Arabs and Turkmens. They will choose the provisional administration from among themselves.”

Since the start of the Syrian revolution against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad more than two years ago, Turkey has been uneasy about the presence of the PYD -- which it sees as a branch of its own outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- along its borders.

In turn, PYD officials have accused Turkey of supporting radical Islamic fighters who try to take over Kurdish towns and villages near the border, including the radical Jabhal al-Nusrah, which the Kurds accuse Ankara of backing.

Muslim’s visit appears to have eased suspicions between both sides. Speaking to the media, Muslim said that he had conveyed the Kurds’ concern about the radical Jabhat al-Nusrah to Turkish foreign ministry officials.

Other Syrian Kurdish parties applauded the meeting between Muslim and Turkey, believing it will help the Kurdish cause in Syria.

Shalal Gado, representative of the Kurdish Left Party in Sulaimani said he believed that it was the successful rout of Islamic fighters by the People’s Defense Units (PYG) – the PYD’s armed wing – in the Kurdish areas that that forced Turkey to meet with Syrian Kurds.

“Until recently most Kurdish leaders believed the YPG is a curse to the Kurdish cause and that that organization is unable to talk to the world,” Gado told Rudaw. “But this visit disproved that perception.”

Muslim also told Dicle News that Turkish officials had promised to reopen some of their border crossing and customs points along the Kurdish areas of Syria.

Jadan Ali, head of the Kurdish Reform Movement in Syria, said that Turkey has finally realized that the YPG is a force to be reckoned with, hence calling a meeting with Muslim.

“But there are other reasons too,” said Ali. “Turkey sees that the main Syrian opposition groups are getting weaker and that the Assad regime is regaining strength.”

Ali said that at this critical phase in the Syrian revolution, Turkey knows that it is better to talk to the PYD than keep it as an enemy.

Meanwhile, some Kurdish groups expressed a sense of betrayed by the PYD.

Mahmoud Muhammad, representative of the Kurdish United Democratic Party in Syria, said that the PYD had branded all other Kurdish groups as Turkish agents in the past, yet Muslim himself flew to Turkey on an official visit.

Muhammad said that his party had declined several invitations from Turkey in the past, insisting on Kurdish unity instead.