ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The era of Kurds fighting as proxies for regional powers is over, Syrian-Kurdish leader Salih Muslim said in an interview published today, in a swipe at Turkey for prioritizing the struggle against the regime in Damascus in the continuing civil war. Kurds were not prepared to fight on Turkey’s behalf against Bashar Al-Assad, Muslim, head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Turkey’s daily Hürriyet. “We have been in a fight against this regime since 2004,” he was quoted as saying in Brussels. “We were being tortured in intelligence basements while you were [dining with them] in Aleppo, Damascus and Ankara. Now you are saying we should do this and that to the regime.” Muslim said Kurdish forces repelled and ousted regime forces from its areas. “Do you want us to fight against them in Damascus and be a soldier there instead of you?” he asked. “We will not do that. We have stopped being soldiers for others, which Kurds have done throughout history.” Muslim demanded anti-tank weapons to help save Kobane, the Syrian border town where the PYD declared autonomy after taking control of the area during the civil war when regime forces pulled back. He said a ground offensive was not necessary for Kobane and that anti-tank weapons would suffice for the Kurds to save the region. “A ground offensive would make things worse, not better,” Mulsim told Hürriyet. “Who would they conduct the ground war against? Is it against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL]? ISIL is in Istanbul.” Turkey, which has been accused the PYD and others of facilitating the growth of ISIS, has called for a buffer zone in its border area, a proposal that the US has so far rejected. “[Turkey] wants to fix these regions according to its own will and wants to demographically change the area,” said Muslim. The PYD leader may visit Erbil this week, depending on the outcome of inter-Kurdish contacts to resolve differences between the parties. The relationship between the PYD and the Kurdistan Regional Government has been strained, among other things, because of Erbil’s close relationship with Turkey.
