Erbil joins call for establishment of federal system in Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The president of the Kurdistan Region has expressed his support for a federal system in Syria and called on Kurdish groups to unite behind the project.

“For stability in Syria and real partnership among its people the Kurdistan Region supports the idea of a federal system,” said the office of Kurdish President Masoud Barzani on Thursday.

The statement calls on the Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) to lend their support to any such project.

“We ask the Kurdish groups in Syria to have one position and in a united political project demand a federal system in Syria,” it read.

The possibility of such a system has been raised by certain local groups in Syria as well as western leaders, among them Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov who said on Monday that Moscow supports any arrangement the Syrians reach, including federalism.

Earlier this week an umbrella Kurdish group TEVDEM which includes the Democratic Union Party (PYD) announced in Amude that federalism was their system of choice for Syria.

Syrian Kurds have been in control of their areas north and east of the country since 2012 and have largely kept out of the Syrian civil war.