COPENHAGEN, Denmark – International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has accused the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which controls Syria’s Kurdish Regions (Rojava), of disrespecting freedom of speech and arresting journalists in Syrian Kurdistan.
“The PYD and its henchmen have no qualms about arresting or even abducting news and information providers whom they see as too critical in order to silence them and intimidate the others,” said the France-based international NGO.
It referred to the arrests or abductions of Mohammed Mahmoud Bashar, Raman Hisso, Peshewa Bahlawi and Rudy Ibrahim, all of them journalists from Rudaw, Zagros TV or Orient News.
They were accused of having links with the Kurdish National Council or with Jabhat al-Nusrah and ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Syria (KDP-S) also have been arrested by the PYD on grounds they are illegally trying to form their own army.
Hemin Hawrami, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) foreign relations in the Kurdistan Region, criticized the PYD for excluding other Kurdish groups and arresting critics.
“Not allowing others is against democracy, against national aspirations of the Kurdish people in Syria and it is in the interest of the enemy,” Hawrami told Rudaw during a recent visit to Denmark.
Despite repeated attempts, it was not possible to get a comment from the PYD about the accusations.
But Ibrahim Ibrahim, member of the PYD’s Media Committee and its official in Europe, told Ara News that his party does not oppose or exclude any party in the self-rule administration led by the PYD. He said that critics were working against the PYD.
"The PYD essentially disagrees with the KDP-S because they want to present themselves as an alternative to our national and political project,” Ibrahim claimed.
He said that the KDP-S can join the ranks of the PYD-led Popular Protection Units (YPG) to avoid any possible Kurdish infighting.
Altan Tan, a member of the Turkish parliament from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), disagrees.
"It is only natural that a party will try to provide an alternative to the ruling party,” Tan told Rudaw. “As long as it does not do so violently, there is no problem. In a democracy, there must be different voices," he said, emphasizing that was his personal view.
According to Sardar Sharif, a PhD researcher in international relations at the University of Dohuk, Reporters without Borders is a credible and objective organization and its charges against the PYD must be taken seriously.
"The fact that PYD arrests journalists shows that the party considers journalists who interview PYD’s local rivals or write critically about PYD to be against them," Sharif told Rudaw.
"When journalists write critically, PYD accuses them of belonging to a particular party. So the arrests of journalists and other critics are the result of the tensions between the PYD and the Iraqi-Kurdish groups," Sharif said.
But he also stressed that media organizations in the Kurdistan Region often belong to a political party, or are many times funded by a party. The PYD accuses news and information providers of belonging to parties it sees as opponents.
"When journalists write critically, PYD accuses them of belonging to a particular party. So the arrests of journalists and other critics are the result of the tensions between the PYD and the Iraqi-Kurdish groups," Sharif said.
Meanwhile, tensions continue between the KDP and PYD over the digging of a line of trenches on the border between the Kurdistan Region and Rojava. The trench project has been criticized by PYD and its affiliate, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They accuse the KRG and KDP of digging the ditches as a favor to Turkey, and in order to isolate the Syrian Kurds.
The jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, has accused the Kurdish authorities of acting together with the Turkish government.
Hawrami said that the trenches are a security belt to stop terrorists from creeping across the border from Syria.
