“We have good relations with all Kurdish parties in Syria, especially those that make up the Kurdish National Council. We do not have any issues with any Kurdish-Syrian parties, except for the PYD which has imposed a de facto rule and administration on our people. They use weapons against our people,” Mohammed Ismail, the newly-elected secretary of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Syria (PDK-S), told Rudaw on Friday.
The Democratic Union Party (PYD) is the ruling party in the Kurdish-governed region known as Rojava. It is also the political wing of the armed People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“We do not have any contact with the Autonomous Administration, which is run by the PYD,” said Ismail.
PDK-S is the oldest Kurdish-Syrian party, founded in 1957. It has strong ties with the Kurdistan Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and is the backbone of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) which consists of several Kurdish-Syrian opposition parties. Ismail was elected leader of the PDK-S during a party congress in Erbil on Saturday.
The ENKS and the PYD have been at odds for several years, with the ENKS accusing the PYD of being unwilling to share power and detaining their members. The ENKS boycotted 2017 local elections and holds no seats in the current Rojava administration. They have held several meetings in recent years about power sharing.
Senior PYD official Aldar Xelil said in 2020 that they cannot offer administration positions to the ENKS because they have not been elected to the various governing bodies and rejected the idea of ENKS-affiliated Peshmerga forces deploying to Rojava.
The first ENKS-PYD talks took place in Duhok in 2014. Initiated by Masoud Barzani, then president of the Kurdistan Region and leader of the KDP, the talks ended in a deal that included establishing a joint governing council and forming a joint military force, but it was never implemented.
In 2019, they sat down for a new round of talks weeks after Turkey invaded a number of Kurdish towns in northern Syria. Despite having United States support, the talks stalled within months with each accusing the other of walking away from the table.
ENKS has accused the ruling party of cracking down on their members, burning and closing their offices, and restricting their political freedom. The PYD claims that the ENKS, which is a member of the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition coalition, serves Ankara’s agenda.
