PYD leader Salih Muslim: Kurds are fighting their final war

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -- The co-leader of the ruling Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) said that the current conflict in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria, is the final war for the Kurds, describing it as the war for survival.

 

He also said the the alliance between the respective countries where Kurds live, namely Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, has cracked, with Baghdad now supporting Kurdish rights in their country.

 

“The war that is taking place in the Middle East is the final war for the Kurds,” Muslim told the local Hawar news agency on Sunday. “Either we win and would become an example of success for the Middle East, or we will be defeated.”

 

Muslim, whose party has declared the self-autonomous administration in northern Syria along the Turkish border, explained that the Kurds “were not prepared” after the first two World Wars. But this time, he noted, the Kurds have their own force and administration, and therefore are better prepared to secure their achievements after what he called the Third World War which is now taking place in Syria, and to wider extent in the Middle East.

 

PYD's armed wing the People's Protections Units (YPG) and its female counterpart (YPJ) are mainly engaged in their war against ISIS under the banner of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and are supported by the US-led global coalition, around the Syrian city of Raqqa, the self-styled capital of the extremist group.

 

Commenting on strained relations between Erbil and Baghdad, Muslim said that the Kurds should not make an enemy of Baghdad since, as he claimed, it has already accepted the rights of the Kurdish people.

 

“Regarding Baghdad, it has now accepted the existence of Kurds, federalism, and the rights of the Kurdish people; to coexist with Kurds. We should not turn Baghdad into our enemy, because they have come out [from the alliance] that stands against us. We hope that the rest also will follow suit, the Levant [Damascus], and Tehran. They, too, can accept the existence of Kurds in their places,” he said, adding that breaking the alliance between these countries is an opportunity that the Kurds have to take advantage of.

 

On Turkey's incursion into Syria where the Turkish government has supported the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) since August last year, Muslim argued that it is part of the Turkish dream to reclaim areas it lost after the First World War, including some parts of Syria and Mosul, aimed at crushing the Kurdish existence in these places.

 

Muslim's PYD party is accused by other Syrian Kurdish groups of barring them from political activity and the arrest of their members in different cities.