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Syria
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, British MP for the Labour and Co-operative Party, talking to Rudaw's Shahyan Tahseen on February 14, 2023. Photo:
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The international community should ensure that the evolving democracy that has been established in northeast Syria (Rojava) by the Kurds should not be exterminated by Turkey and Syria, a British parliamentarian who recently visited the area told Rudaw last week, adding that a political settlement with Damascus would preserve Kurdish autonomy.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, British MP for the Labour and Co-operative Party, visited the Rojava region last week with a group of British parliamentarians and held talks with various factions and Kurdish authorities there.
The Kurdish authorities in Rojava are currently dealing with several crises, including the ongoing attacks by the remnants of the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as shelling and drone strikes by Turkey and Turkish-backed forces. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced as a result of the Turkish offensive in the area as Ankara threatens to launch yet another invasion.
“We need to ensure, democracy, the embryonic element of democracy that has been established in Rojava, is not exterminated by either Turkey or by Syria or by other forces, “ Russell-Moyle told Rudaw’s Shahyan Tahseen.
The UK parliamentary delegation visited Rojava where they met with senior officials from the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) and discussed numerous issues including the possibility of holding regular elections.
”We are keen that the parties work together, there is of course an element of de facto administration at the moment led by PYD … we met with their leadership, we talked about elections particularly, and the ability for people to express freely who they wish to support,” Russell-Moyle told Rudaw, adding that the British parliament was ready to send monitoring delegations if need be for elections.
“There has not been an election since 2017 and while that is within the five year mandate at the moment … as that gets further and further away, it is harder to tell who is representing who so there is a keenness to create a new constitution that is inclusive and we talked about supporting that and there is a keenness to have elections.”
The Labour party MP, who has visited the Kurdistan Region three times as part of different delegations, presented his suggestion to the Kurdish authorities in Rojava during his trip.
“The difficulty is we constantly face Turkish incursions, how realistic it would be to run full scale elections!” was the response he was met with.
In fact, as Ankara grapples with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, which has killed over 40,000 in the country alone, Turkish drones attacked a vehicle belonging to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) near Kobane, killing one fighter. At the time of the attack, the UK parliamentary delegation was in Rojava.
The Kurds have repeatedly called on the international community to exert pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop attacking the Kurdish areas in Rojava. Erdogan on the other hand claims that the Kurdish administration is affiliated with its long term nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and Ankara will not allow the region to prosper because it poses a threat to the its own national security.
The Kurdish administration has sought the assistance of the Syrian regime in dealing with the Turkish threats and Damascus has deployed some forces to the border area, albeit with the tacit agreement of the Russian government which is a major stakeholder in Syria.
Russell-Moyle believes that the ultimate solution for the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria is “to start reaching out to Damascus to find a political settlement that preserves their autonomy within greater Syria.”
President Bashar al-Assad, responsible for enormous bloodshed in Syria since the civil war began in 2011, is starting to emerge from isolation as several Arab countries have reached out to mend their relations. Damascus and Ankara have held several high level meetings and the two countries are expected to reconcile and hammer out their differences.
Britain and other Western governments should assist the Kurdish authorities in dealing with the problem of thousands of ISIS militants in SDF detention, the UK parliamentarian said. The militants should be tried in an international tribunal set up in northeast Syria, he added.
“If there are British [militants] found guilty which I believe will be many of them then Britain has a responsibility to ensure they lock them up and they pay for the their detention, it is not right to put that burden on Rojava authorities,” Russell-Moyle said.
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