ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Individuals from Hasaka appointed to represent their province in Syria’s National Dialogue Conference do not represent Kurds, Kurdish activists and politicians said as discontent grows over their exclusion from discussions about the country’s future.
The preparatory committee of the National Dialogue Conference on Thursday met with several people from Hasaka province in Damascus and appointed them as representatives of the province. Hasaka is located in the Kurdish-administered northeast (Rojava). Representatives of Kurdish parties were not invited.
“Those who are participating here have come on their own behalf and do not represent the Kurds,” Ahmad Hilal, a Kurdish activist from Hasaka, told Rudaw.
The Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC), an umbrella of opposition parties, in a statement on Thursday said that the national dialogue is key to shaping the country's future, but condemned the marginalization of Kurdish political parties from the process.
“The absence of the Kurdish political movements from the national dialogue sessions represents a breach of the principle of national partnership,” ENKS spokesperson Faisal Youssef said in a statement.
“Any national dialogue concerned with the future of Syria cannot be serious or fruitful unless it ensures the genuine participation of the various components, foremost among them the Kurdish people, represented by their political forces,” he stated.
Youssef told Rudaw that the Syrian transitional authority had not invited any Kurdish parties to the February 20 meeting on Hasaka province.
"Only a few Kurdish figures have been invited as individuals, which is marginalizing Kurdish parties, so we call for the participation of Kurdish parties because the Kurds should not be marginalized in shaping the future of Syria," Youssef said.
Other Kurdish figures agree.
"The invaders… have always wanted to divide and marginalize the Kurds. They are doing this through giving roles to some people," Saadeddin Mullah, a Kurdish politician from Rojava who currently lives in Sweden, told Rudaw.
Naif Jibero, a Kurdish writer from Hasakah who attended the congress, said that he gave the committee a letter that read “If you want to find a solution for Syria, the Kurdish political parties must be the true representatives of the Kurds and you must negotiate with them.”
Earlier, Hassan Dighem, head of the preparatory committee for the National Dialogue Conference told Rudaw that parties, institutions, and organizations would not be invited to the congress. Only social figures, elders, politicians, and intellectuals would be invited.
Following his appointment as Syria’s interim president on January 29, Ahmed al-Sharaa, vowed to hold a National Dialogue Conference that would pave the way for “free and fair elections.”
The preparatory committee was set up on February 11 and tasked with laying the groundwork for the conference. However, the committee was quick to draw criticism over the absence of Kurdish representation.
Kurdish ruling and opposition parties are working to overcome their differences in order to have a united front in dealings with Damascus. In late January, ENKS and Rojava’s ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) agreed to send a joint delegation to Damascus to discuss the future of Kurds in Syria.
