ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish National Council (ENKS) on Tuesday blamed the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) for the recent attacks on their offices in northeast Syria (Rojava), claiming that the “continuous violations” are detrimental to the Kurdish cause and mark a “dangerous” escalation.
ENKS offices in Kobane were set on fire on Wednesday, allegedly by a group affiliated with the PYD. The offices of the council in Hasaka and Derik were also set on fire days prior to the Kobane incident.
“At this time, the PYD and its security devices and repressive tools are making a dangerous escalation, increasing the anxiety and tension between the people through targeting the Kurdish National Council with terror acts,” read the statement from the ENKS General Secretariat.
The statement accused the PYD of mobilizing “incendiary rallies” under the slogan of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and threatening families of ENKS-affiliated Roj Peshmerga forces. ENKS added that alleged actions by the PYD were not in the interests of the Kurdish cause, and that the attacks harm rather than protect it.
Salih Muslim, a senior figure in the PYD’s presidential council, on Wednesday denied the accusations made against his party, telling al-Monitor that they were in no way linked to the perpetrators of the attack.
The council claimed that the goal of the campaigns by the PYD was to undermine the recent efforts made by the US in the area to resolve existing disagreements between the Kurdish parties, calling on the international coalition forces, specifically the US, to take the necessary measures to prevent such incidents from reoccurring.
The US Embassy in Syria on Friday said it is "deeply concerned" about the recent attacks on the ENKS offices, adding that "Intimidation and violence have no place in political discourse.”
The Internal Security Forces (Asayish) of Rojava released a statement on Friday, saying that their committees have began investigating the incident to reveal the "anonymous" perpetrators and present them to justice.
In 2016, Rojava authorities banned ENKS activities in the region, closing about 40 of their offices and jailing hundreds of ENKS members who were later released. The crackdown was launched after the latter refused to follow the ruling authorities’ procedures on opening political offices.
They reopened their offices in early 2020 after their talks with PYD resumed in late 2019, thanks to an initiative by Mazloum Abdi, commander of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). However, the talks have stalled since summer 2020 due to tensions between KDP and PKK.
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