Rojava launches online campaign demanding recognition of the Autonomous Administration

Khazan Jangiz

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has launched an online campaign calling for the recognition of the administration ahead of the ninth anniversary of the Rojava revolution.

“The solution to the Syrian crisis depends on the United Nations Resolution 2254 and we call on the UN to recognize the Northern and Eastern Syria regions,” the AANES said in a statement on Facebook.

Adopted in December 2015, the UN resolution calls for a ceasefire and settlement to the civil war in Syria between the Syrian government and opposition movement that was never met.

“We renew our position on the necessity of a solution in Syria in accordance with UN Resolution 2254, and we denounce all policies that are being carried out in Syria by some parties to pass their own agendas at the expense of the Syrian people and their cause,” the AANES said.

Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said the campaign is “to further strengthen the struggle to guarantee the future of North and East Syria” and will be led on social media “and will reach every institution worldwide."

 

A former spokesperson for the SDF has also called on people to join in from Sunday night.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended to the US government that it recognizes the AANES, according to a tweet from its chair Nadine Maenza.

The Kurds of northeast Syria, or Rojava, first declared their opposition to the regime of Bashar al-Assad on July 19, 2012 in Kobane – when the People’s Protection Units (YPG) took control of Kobane and other Kurdish-majority areas, and is now known as the beginning of the Rojava revolution. 

The ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), a political wing of the YPG, held municipal elections in 2014 in the canton of Jazira. But that same year, Kurdish fighters faced an onslaught from the Islamic State (ISIS). They put up a fierce defense of the areas under its control with the support of the US-led coalition, and managed to take control of Arab-majority areas in north and east Syria, including Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Tabqa.

The PYD has affirmed on numerous occasions that it does not seek secession from the Syrian state. Rather, it seeks decentralization.

It declared federalism in the three cantons of Afrin, Euphrates, and Jazira in 2017, and held elections. The first phase of elections, to decide on community leaders like mukhtars, took place in September 2017. The second phase of elections, for local councils, took place in December the same year.

The Syrian Kurdish authorities in 2019 renamed the regions under their governance the Autonomous Administration of North and East of Syria. They had previously named them the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.