Kurdish bond carries Syrian refugee burden

Al jazeera -- As thousands of Syrian refugees arrive at the camps in Northern Iraq, 'brotherly Kurdish bond' still seems strong. 

It's the battered suitcases and the plastic carrier bags that really get to you.
The Kurdish-Syrian refugees cling on to them dearly. Small children lie on top of the bigger suitcases, lying still in unforgiving sun. Small pieces of cloth have been tied to the handles so people can recognise what's theirs.

Iraqi Kurdistan sets quota for Syria refugees: aid groups

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA |(Reuters) - The government of Iraqi Kurdistan has set an entry quota of 3,000 refugees a day to cope with an influx of Kurds fleeing the civil war in Syria, but there are signs many more are still coming in, aid agencies said on Tuesday.

About 35,000 refugees, believed to be mainly Syrian Kurds, have entered Iraq since last Thursday, including an estimated 5,100, well over the cap, on Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

Syrian Kurds' flight drags Iraq deeper into neighbor's war

By Murad Talaat

PESHKHABOUR, Iraq |(Reuters) - Mahmoud Qarou packed his bags two days ago, joining tens of thousands of Syrian refugees escaping into northern Iraq, convinced that the two-year conflict could only get worse.

About 35,000 Syrian refugees have poured into neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan over a new border crossing since Thursday, fleeing a surge in attacks by al Qaeda-linked Sunni Arab rebel group al-Nusra Front on Kurdish villages near the border.
"There is no peaceful solution in Syria. The regime is bombing us and al-Nusra Front members are blowing themselves up all over the place," Qarou said in front of rows of United Nations aid tents.

Syrian Kurd refugees flee in fear of al Nusra rebel group

Aug. 18 (Reuters) -- Thousands of refugees are crossing the border into Iraqi Kurdistan from Syria as the civil war becomes increasingly hostile. Nathan Frandino reports.

Iraqi Kurdish leader vows to defend Kurds in Syria

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The president of Iraqi Kurdistan has threatened to intervene in neighboring Syria to defend the large Kurdish population living there from al-Qaida-linked fighters.

The statement Saturday from Massoud Barzani follows weeks of clashes in predominantly Kurdish parts of northeastern Syrian near the Iraqi border between Kurdish militias and Islamic extremist rebel factions. The fighting has killed dozens on both sides.

Barzani has ordered an investigation to verify the reports of fighting. He says that if Syrian Kurds are indeed threatened by "killing and terrorism," then Iraqi Kurdistan "will make use of all its capabilities to defend the Kurdish women, children and citizens in western Kurdistan."

Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region boasts its own ministries and security forces.

In Syria, Kurds make up about 10 percent of the country's 23 million people.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Syrian government warplanes bombed a predominantly Sunni village and killed at least 20 people, opposition activists said Saturday, as government forces pushed to retake territory in the western heartland of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect.

The rebel capture last week of 11 villages in the regime stronghold of Latakia province was a symbolic blow to Assad, whose troops have otherwise been making gains in central Syria and around the capital Damascus.

Assad's forces are now trying to retake those villages, predominantly populated by Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.

The mountainous region near the Mediterranean Sea is also home to villages populated by Sunni Muslims, who dominate the rebel ranks. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighter jets struck one Sunni village, Salma, late Friday, and that at least half of the dead were fighters.

The group reported heavy clashes between troops and rebels in the surrounding Jabal al-Akrad mountains on Saturday. It had no reports of casualties in the fighting.

The state media said Saturday that government troops recaptured three of the 11 villages. Activists confirmed the fall of one village but said fighting was continuing in the other two.

Most of Latakia province has been tight government control and comparatively peaceful during the conflict, now in its third year. But earlier this week rebels including foreign fighters swept through a string of villages, sending civilians fleeing their homes. At least 60 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the rebel offensive, activists said. They say another 400 civilians, mostly Alawites, are missing and are presumed to be in rebel custody in the area.

The activists spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Assad's troops have recently advanced near the border with Lebanon and in the city of Homs, an opposition stronghold. They have also fought pockets of resistance around the capital, where they ambushed a large group of rebels on Wednesday, killing more than 60 fighters.

Rebels, however, have made advances in the past week in the north, where they succeeded in taking over an air base after months of fighting.

Syrian's conflict started in March 2011 as a largely peaceful uprising against Assad's authoritarian rule. It has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone in the last year. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Where do Syria's Kurds stand?

As Kurdish fighters battle groups linked to al-Qaeda, we examine their role in the confusing and bloody conflict.

It has been a week of major developments for Syria's Kurds, the largest non-Arab ethnic minority in the country. They [Kurds] have been actively contributing to the democratic change against this brutal regime .... And since the democratic uprising ... the Kurds were at the front of demonstrations. Alan Semo, a representative of the Democratic Union Party On Tuesday, the main Kurdish militia issued a call to arms against factions fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime. This followed the killing of Isa Huso, a leading Syrian Kurdish politician, in a car bomb attack near the Turkish border. Huso, a member of the Supreme Kurdish Council, was targeted outside his house in Qamishli in an incident that raises questions about where the Kurds stand in Syria's confusing and bloody conflict. In the days after Huso's death there have been battles between Kurdish fighters and armed men from groups allied to al-Qaeda. There are many Syrians who fear the Kurds are using the conflict to carve out a separate state, but the main Kurdish party says it is simply defending its own people. But now, given the assault on them by al-Qaeda linked groups, some Syrian Kurds are calling for an alliance with the very group that they say oppressed them in the past - al-Assad's army. All of this means that the conflict in Syria is further dividing people along ethnic lines. Kurds are largely Sunni Muslims with their own language and culture. Most of them live in the generally contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. We have in the opposition and the FSA [people] from all the Syrian sects, they are fighting the undemocratic, the dictatorship regime so [it is] not at all a fight between Alawites and Sunnis, it is a fight for freedom and democracy. Monzer Akbik, a member of the Syrian National Coalition There are different, and sometimes conflicting Kurdish groups in each country. And the divisions do not end at the borders. The Kurds living inside Syria are also divided politically into two major groups - the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Kurdish National Council (KNC). The PYD is considered the strongest Syrian Kurdish group with its well-armed militias and is also affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. On the other hand, the KNC is affiliated with Iraqi Kurds of the Kurdistan regional government. And just two weeks ago, fighters allied to the PYD captured the town of Ras al-Ain from al-Nusra fighters, who are against the al-Assad regime. So, are the Syrian Kurds part of the uprising against the al-Assad regime or not? Inside Syria, with presenter Sami Zeidan, discusses with guests: Monzer Akbik, a member of the Syrian National Coalition; Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a political analyst for the Jamestown Foundation who specialises in Kurdish politics; and Alan Semo, a representative of the foreign affairs and relations office of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the UK. "The Kurds already had their own uprising against the regime in 2004 in Qamishli, so they already rose up against the Assad government before the others did. But basically the strategy of most of the Kurdish parties, the nationalist ones, is that they want to protect the Kurdish areas ... and all of them are saying that they don't want to separate from Syria ... they want to have some form of self-governance but of course some people within the opposition, they don't agree with this neutrality, they want them to actively also go to Damascus and help them." Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a political analyst

[Al jazeera]

Syrian Kurds take fragile steps towards autonomy

By Jonathon Burch

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey

(Reuters) - Looking back over the border at the Syrian hometown he fled, Adil is circumspect when he sees a Kurdish flag hoisted over its low-rise, breeze block buildings.
The 33-year-old Kurd has seen victors come and go and it is far too soon to celebrate.
"First there was Bashar al-Assad and there was oppression, then came the rebel Free Syrian Army and it was little better, and now the Kurds have taken control," he said.
"We're undecided on what they will be like. We'll have to wait and see. But whoever is in control is not important as long as there is security and justice. That's all we want."
Kurdish militias have sought to consolidate their grip in northern Syria after exploiting the chaos of the country's civil war over the past year by seizing control of districts as President Bashar al-Assad's forces focused elsewhere.
Their emerging self-rule is starting to echo the autonomy of Kurds in neighboring north Iraq, and highlights Syria's slow fragmentation into a Kurdish north-east, mainly government-held areas around Damascus, Homs and the Mediterranean, and a rebel swathe leading from Aleppo along the Euphrates Valley to Iraq.
Ras al-Ain, a border town abutting Ceylanpinar in Turkey and an ethnic mix of Arabs, Kurds and others, has been a focus of the struggle for months, with Kurdish militias fighting for control against Arab rebel fighters from the al Qaeda-linked hardline Sunni Islamist al-Nusra Front.
Two weeks ago, fighters allied to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the strongest local Kurdish group with its well-armed and effective militias, captured the town from Nusra fighters.
Days later, the PYD's leader Saleh Muslim announced it would set up an independent council to run Kurdish areas of Syria until the war ends.
The Kurdish Supreme Committee, a newly-formed umbrella group for Kurdish parties in Syria including the PYD, has flown its flag over the town but its hold is fragile.
Nusra fighters have regrouped in Tel Halaf, a settlement four kilometers to the west, from where they have been shelling and firing in an attempt to recoup their losses, although the Kurds appear to be holding their ground.
The clashes have reduced to the odd burst of gunfire, but days of heavy exchanges last month sent stray shells and bullets crashing onto the Turkish side. Three Turkish citizens were killed, including a 15-year-old boy by a bullet to the head.
The Turkish military, which has been returning fire into Syria when stray bullets or mortars land inside Turkey, said it had fired several shots across the frontier at Ceylanpinar on Thursday night after a bullet from Syria hit the town.
Daily clashes have continued between Kurds and Islamists across Syria's north and in the early hours of Friday morning, PYD fighters killed 12 Islamist militants in the northeastern province of Hassake which borders Turkey and Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
HISTORY OF REPRESSION
Divided between Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, the Kurdish people are often described as the largest ethnic group without a state of their own. Syria's Kurds, the country's largest ethnic minority, suffered government repression for decades.
Under Assad and his father before him, they were forbidden from learning their own language, frequently evicted from their land and even denied full Syrian citizenship. Their region is home to a chunk of Syria's estimated 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, but Kurds enjoyed little benefit.
For now, Kurdish and Arab refugees who have fled Ras al-Ain mainly speak of their longing to return to homes in peace, regardless of who is in charge.
Khadija, a 29-year-old Arab, who fled the town with her family twice in the past eight months, said seven of her male relatives were executed by Arab rebel fighters because they had wanted to escape recruitment.
"We want a state to be formed by whoever. Who it is doesn't matter. Security is our only concern. Let us just be able to go to our homes - Arabs, Kurds or whoever," she said.
Across the border, powerful neighbor Turkey is treading a careful line.
Kurdish assertiveness has posed a quandary for Ankara as it tries to make peace on its own soil with militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a rebel group which has fought for greater Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades.
Turkey fears a power grab by Kurdish militias in Syria may embolden the PKK militants. But it is also uneasy about swathes of territory along its border falling to the Nusra Front, which has merged with the Iraq branch of al Qaeda.
In a rare statement last month, the Turkish military said it had fired on PYD fighters, describing them as "separatist terrorists", after bullets from Ras al-Ain hit inside Turkey. Previous statements had not specified targets of return fire.
But there are also signs Turkey is willing to work with the PYD and other Kurdish groups if it can be sure they will remain resolutely opposed to Assad, vow not to seek autonomy through violence or before Syria's wider conflict is resolved, and that they pose no threat to Turkey's own security.
"We have no problem with their aspirations ... What we do not want from any group is that they use this situation opportunistically to impose their will by force," a senior Turkish government official said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.
OLIVE BRANCH
The message was delivered directly to Saleh Muslim last week, when Turkey invited him to Istanbul for talks with its intelligence agency after the capture of Ras al-Ain brought what the government official described as a new sense of urgency.
"We understood him and he understood us," the official said.
"He came out satisfied that our position towards Kurds is clear and he also clarified his position ... that they are by no means after autonomy to be established now."
The Turkish government has been discussing reopening border crossings to Kurdish areas in Syria to help the flow of humanitarian aid, including one at Ceylanpinar closed amid uncertainty over who controlled the other side.
"Turkey has really come to a point where it realizes what needs to be done. At the least it has seen that treating the Kurds like an enemy and supporting groups like Nusra is not good for Turkey," said Ismail Arslan, Ceylanpinar mayor from Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).
For Adil and his five children, the day when the Kurdish area of Syria is safe - in any hands - seems far away.
"I'm not hopeful," he said. "Syria will not be fixed even in 10 years. I could be here that long. I will not go back until this war is over."
(Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall in Ankara; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Peter Graff)

Syria's Kurds mobilize to fight al-Qaida groups

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) -- A powerful Kurdish militia said Tuesday it is mobilizing against al-Qaida-linked rebels in northeastern Syria after a Kurdish opposition leader was killed in the area.

The fight between the Kurds and the extremists has become a war within a war in Syria's oil-rich region. Clashes between Kurdish gunmen and members of al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant over the past weeks left dozens of gunmen dead from both sides.

The fighting claimed a prominent casualty Tuesday, as a car bomb killed Kurdish leader Issa Hisso, said the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the most powerful faction of the ethnic group in the region.

"We condemn this ugly criminal act and we promise the martyr and his comrades that we will stand idle," the party said in a statement.

Hisso opposed and was imprisoned in the past by President Bashar Assad's regime. He also spoke out against radical Islamic groups, including the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Both groups have gained influence in the opposition after leading several battles.

Though no group claimed responsibility Tuesday for Hisso's slaying, suspicion fell on the al-Qaida-linked organizations. Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the party, said fighters hoped to clear the groups out of Kurdish areas.

"The military units have declared mobilization," he said. "The jihadi forces or forces of darkness have been attacking Kurdish areas so it is normal that there be military and political mobilization.

Kurdish gunmen and al-Qaida-linked groups already have fought sporadic battles over the past months.

Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, make up more than 10 percent of the country's 23 million people. Their loyalties in the conflict are split, though Kurds in opposition areas have carved out a once unthinkable degree of independence in their areas. They've creating their own police forces, issuing their own license plates and exuberantly going public with their language and culture.

Meanwhile Tuesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a car bomb went off in the town of Maabadeh in Hassakeh province. It said the blast wounded some people and was followed by deployment of Kurdish gunmen in the area.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions have been driven out of their homes, seeking shelter in safer areas of the country or in the neighboring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Activists also reported that an Italian Jesuit priest, Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, has gone missing while on a trip to the rebel-held northeastern city of Raqqa. Dall'Oglio is an Assad opponent who was expelled last year from Syria, where he had lived for 30 years.

He reportedly went in to Raqqa to meet with al-Qaida-linked militants there. On Saturday, he posted on his Facebook page in Arabic that he felt happy to be in a "beautiful, free" city. Videos posted online showed him surrounded by a boisterous crowd in Raqqa this past weekend, giving a speech.

The Observatory said Dall-Oglio had told an activist in the city Monday that he was going to meet with the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. It was not clear whether he was still on his mission or had been abducted.

Earlier in the day, mortar attacks and air raids in two major cities in Syria killed at least 17 people, activists and government officials said.

The deadliest attack struck the central city of Homs, which has been an opposition stronghold since the beginning of the two-year conflict and is now the target of a withering offensive by President Bashar Assad's forces.

Three mortars slammed into a government-held district of Dablan before dawn Tuesday, killing 10 people and wounding 26 others, a government official. He said many living in the neighborhood fled there to escape fighting elsewhere in Homs. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations for civil servants.

The Observatory said 11 people - including a child - were killed. It cited hospital officials and also said attack happened late Monday close to midnight.

Homs has been the center of protests against Assad's rule since the Syrian revolt started in March 2011. In recent weeks, the city has been the scene of fierce fighting between Assad's troops and rebels fighting to topple his regime. On Monday, government troops captured Homs' strategic area of Khaldiyeh after a monthlong battle, bringing Assad's regime closer to its goal of capturing all of Syria's third largest city.

In northern Syria, regime warplanes hit the town of Andan, killing seven people, including five children, the Observatory said.

---

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Barbara Surk in Beirut contributed to this report.

Car bomb kills Syrian Kurdish politician

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey | Tue Jul 30, 2013 10:49am EDT

(Reuters) - A prominent Syrian Kurdish politician was assassinated early on Tuesday outside his home near the Turkish border when a bomb planted in his car exploded.
Isa Huso, a member of the foreign relations committee in the Higher Kurdish Council, a group formed to unite Syrian Kurdish parties, was leaving his house in the Syrian town of Al Qamishli when the bomb exploded, Kurdish political sources said.
Kurdish activist Massoud Akko said Huso, who was in his fifties, was a moderate who was imprisoned several times under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and during the rule of Assad's late father for campaigning for human rights.
"Huso sought to promote Kurdish rights within a united Syria free from the grip of the Assad regime," Akko, who lives in exile in Norway but was previously a neighbor of Huso in Al Qamishli, told Reuters.
"No one knows who killed him but the fingers point to the militant Islamists. They are the only ones who are targeting Kurds as Kurds," he said.
Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party condemned the killing but gave no further details.
The revolt against Assad has evolved from its origins as a peaceful protest movement in March 2011 into a civil war that has killed over 100,000 people.
Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority has been battling both Assad's forces and the Islamist-dominated rebels for control of parts of the north, near the border with Turkey, for several months.
Kurds argue they support the revolt but rebels accuse them of making deals with the government in order to ensure their security and autonomy during the conflict.
The Turkey-Syria border has seen a surge of violence since last week when the strongest local Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) seized control of the border town of Ras al-Ain following days of clashes with the Islamist rebel militants from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
Reports of Nusra taking back control of the town over the weekend could not immediately be confirmed.
PYD has said it aims to set up an independent council to run Kurdish regions until Syria's civil war ends. Such a move would alarm the Syrian rebels and neighboring Turkey, both wary of a possible Kurdish state.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Oweis in Amman, Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Kurds could help shift course of war in Syria

 

By Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL | Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:02am EDT

(Reuters) - The head of Turkey's main Kurdish party has welcomed contacts between the Ankara government and Syria's Kurds, saying it could step up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and help change the course of the civil war,
Turkish intelligence officers met in Istanbul last week with Saleh Muslim, head of Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Kurdish group whose militias have been fighting for control of parts of Syria's north near the Turkish border.
The meeting followed Muslim's declaration that Kurdish groups would set up an independent council to run Kurdish areas of Syria until the war ends. Ankara fears that kind of autonomy could rekindle separatist sentiment among its own, much larger Kurdish population as it seeks to end a 30-year-old insurgency.
"Saleh Muslim's visit to Istanbul is a concrete sign that Turkey is moving towards changing a policy that sees Kurds as a menace," Selahattin Demirtas, head of parliament's Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), told Reuters in an interview.
"It won't just affect Turkish-Kurdish relations but also the course of events in Syria by creating pressure on the regime," he said.
"Kurds can be effective in Syria, and we need to increase support for them. Western countries, including the United States, should establish proper ties with Syria's Kurds."
Turkey is one of the strongest backers of the rebels seeking to topple Assad in a war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since March, 2011.
Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority has been alternately battling Assad's forces and the Islamist-dominated rebels for control of parts of the north.
Turkey wants assurances from the PYD that it will not threaten border security or seek an autonomous region in Syria through violence, and that it will maintain a stance of firm opposition to Assad, officials said.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday warned the group against any "wrong and dangerous" moves that could hurt Turkish security.
PEACE AT HOME
 
Demirtas is a main player in Turkey's efforts to resolve a conflict on its own soil with Kurdish militants in which more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since 1984.
The 40-year-old party leader has shuttled to the island prison that has held Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), since his conviction for treason in 1999 and has delivered the rebel leader's messages to his armed followers in northern Iraq.
The PKK - considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union - announced a ceasefire in March to encourage talks with Ocalan, seen as the best chance yet to end one of the world's longest-running guerrilla wars.
"He is like a good chess player. He makes his move by predicting the next eight or 10 moves in advance," said Demirtas, who met Ocalan for the first time on Imrali this year.
Running red worry beads through his hands, he described Ocalan as a master of Middle Eastern politics and connoisseur of literature, philosophy, art and history.
In recent weeks the rebels have warned that Erdogan's government must show greater commitment if the ceasefire is to hold, and address Kurdish grievances by expanding political and cultural rights.
The BDP expects legislative action by October, when parliament reconvenes after a summer recess, on demands for the release of thousands of party members in detention on terrorism charges, stronger local rule and Kurdish-language education.
Turkey banned the use of Kurdish, a distinct language related to Farsi, outright until 1991 and has only recently allowed it to be used in radio and television broadcasts.
Authorities strictly control access to Ocalan, limiting him to infrequent meetings with family, his lawyers and BDP members involved in the peace process. Supporters would like to see him moved out of his small cell to meet with civic groups and the media, as well as for a hospital to open on Imrali.
Conditions for the 64-year-old Ocalan must be improved or his frail health could imperil the peace process, Demirtas warned, saying eventually he should be freed.
"If there is going to be peace in Turkey, if the enmity is to end, if we're going to have forgiveness, then this should happen," he said. "When this peace process is fulfilled and things normalize, no one is going to keep him there."
(Fixes garble in penultimate paragraph)
(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Angus MacSwan)

War in Syria inspires Kurdish unity

 

Northern Syria sees battles between Kurds and al-Qaeda-inspired groups, as Kurds prepare for election and autonomy.

Ece Goksedef Last Modified: 27 Jul 2013 17:15
A new front is opening in Syria’s devastating civil war as Kurds and al-Qaeda-inspired fighters take advantage of a power vacuum to fight for control of key northern towns.
Self-ruling in most of the north-east, the Kurdish autonomy project has been dealt a blow, as Islamists have emerged as a powerful group, attempting to establish a religious state in the north.

Clashes have engulfed two strategic towns on the Turkish border after Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad withdrew his forces to let both sides battle it out while he confronts the Free Syrian Army in other regions.

Battles for the two towns between Kurds and Islamist fighters are bringing rare unity to the fractious Kurds as they prepare for elections that will establish the basis of self-rule.
“This unity is crucial to the success of the implementation of an autonomous administration and proposed elections,” said Christian Sinclair, a Syria expert at the University of Arizona and also president of the Kurdish Studies Association.

Divided between Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, Kurds form the largest ethnic group without a state in the world and in Syria number nearly three million people.

Kurds built another front in Syria's war

Syria’s Kurds took the first step towards full autonomy in July 2012, when Assad withdrew his army and bureaucrats from Kurdish territories in the north-east in a bid to bolster support as the uprising against him unfolded.

After decades of oppression, lack of recognition and assimilation, the Kurds hoisted the flag of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) - the most powerful Kurdish party in Syria and the only one with an armed wing.

A year on Kurdish regions including Ayn al-Arab (Kobane in Kurdish) and Afrin in the west are now being administered by PYD committees, and the party’s leader Salih Muslim has announced elections for an interim local parliament, raising the stakes in the pursuit of self-rule.

Muslim told Al Jazeera that whatever the outcome of Syria’s civil war, the Kurds will retain their objective of autonomy and have no separatist ambitions.

“Autonomy was always our project and is now accepted by our people. Our measures taken now will always be valid,” he said.

“But we have never had a project to split from Syria for a separate state, we will always be under Syrian state authority. After the war, we will reach an agreement with all the parties in Syria for the future of our territory.”

Territorial struggle

Observers say that before the polls, the PYD is aiming to unite Kurdish territory separated by two towns on the Turkish border until recently controlled by Islamist rebels, Ras al-Ayn and Tel Abyad (Serê Kaniyê and Girê Sipî in Kurdish), which were partially Arabised under former president Hafez al-Assad.

Sinclair suggested that the idea of a temporary administration is largely defensive, to protect the borders of the Kurdish region and those living within it.
“The struggle for control of territory, however, has been increasingly marred by violence,” he said.

Kurdish populated areas in yellow. Clashes continue in Rmaylan, al-Yarubiyah and Tel Abyad [Al Jazeera]

Since mid-July PYD forces have been battling to seize the towns – which are strategically important for Islamists as the gateway for supplies reportedly coming from Turkey.

Ras al-Ayn has been under the control of the al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) – both branded terrorist organisations by the West. ISIL also controls most of Tel Abyad along with the non al-Qaeda Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham.

These towns are now the scenes of power struggle between PYD and various groups of Islamist fighters.

In Ras al-Ayn, al-Nusra captured some PYD members who were patrolling the territory. PYD forces eventually took control of most of Ras al-Ayn, including the border crossing with Turkey, but they continue to face mortar fire from al-Qaeda-linked fighters.

Two days after PYD seized Ras al-Ayn, clashes erupted in Tel Abyad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting in Tel Abyad began after the al-Akrad Kurdish militia - which is close to the PYD but also fights under the command of the Free Syrian Army - encountered rebels trying to set explosives at one of their bases.

Clashes have intensified in the town, where the Ahrar al-Sham commander claims to have driven out Kurdish fighters and accuses the PYD of co-operating with Assad.

“We cannot accept the PYD here, they are capturing even Kurdish people. We are against any group who has ties to Assad regime,” the commander said.

Salih Muslim said the al-Akrad brigade is now fighting to protect the Kurdish people in the villages around western Tel Abyad.

“Islamist groups started to provoke us. And now al-Akrad is only trying to defend Kurds, as we defended Sere Kaniyê and cleared the town after al-Nusra targeted Kurds. The Kurds will defend themselves and resist any kind of attack.”

The threat of Jabhat al-Nusra can only serve to unite disparate interests of different Kurdish political groups. Christian Sinclair, Syria expert at the University of Arizona

Anonymous sources from al-Akrad front told Al Jazeera that their ultimate goal is to seize the town, where they battle together with PYD's fighters.

The ongoing struggle with al-Qaeda-linked fighters is achieving what many Kurdish leaders in northern Syria have long been unable to do, unifying under PYD and FSA command an ethnic group long divided about its future between at least 16 parties.

On July 25 all the Kurdish parties gathered in Irbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish territory in northern Iraq under President Masoud Barzani.

Signalling the new mood of unity, in Ras al-Ayn the PYD hoisted the flag of the Supreme Kurdish Council, an umbrella organisation of Kurdish parties in the country, co-founded by PYD.

The second co-founder is Kurdish National Committee, consisted of 15 other Syrian Kurdish political parties. The Supreme Council was formed on July 2012 by Barzani’s effort to unite the two, but was unavailing for a year.

Sinclair said “The threat of Jabhat al-Nusra can only serve to unite disparate interests of different Kurdish political groups.”

Turkish unease

But to achieve meaningful autonomy, the PYD will have to deal with the country’s powerful neighbour Turkey, whose government has opposed PYD’s autonomy in northern Syria.

The Turkish government has been in touch with Kurdish National Committee as the legitimate Kurdish opposition instead of PYD.
Turkish resistance towards the PYD derives from its 30-year conflict with the PKK – a separatist Kurdish organisation branded terrorists by many countries including the US – who is affiliated with PYD.

Despite ties with the PKK, Muslim denies that he takes orders from its leader Abdullah Ocalan in a clear effort to pave the way for joining future Western negotiations on Syria’s future.

Although a peace process in Turkey began eight months ago and PKK fighters have been demobilising, Turkish authorities remain wary.

They claim that the PKK sends fighters and gives logistical support to the PYD, although this has not been confirmed.

Salih Muslim has maintained a diplomatic position aimed at reassuring the Turkish government, and has made it clear that he is ready to negotiate.

His approach caused Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s announcement saying that Turkish officials are having talks with PYD . “The Turkish government doesn’t support radical groups in northern Syria,” Davutoglu said recently.

After the Irbil meeting and breaking the ice with the Kurdish National Committee, Muslim has gone to Istanbul, where he has meetings with Turkish officials.

While that future looks likely to be divided by bloodshed for a long time to come, for Syria’s Kurds at least it appears to be one of emerging unity and autonomy.

In northern Syria the struggle between al-Qaeda-linked fighters and stateless secular Kurds, will make the winner gain a lot more than two towns. (al-jazeera)

With files from Hozan Ibrahim in Antakya.
Follow Ece Goksedef on Twitter: @ecegoksedef
 

Turkey warns Syrian Kurds against 'dangerous' moves

 

By Humeyra Pamuk and Gulsen Solaker

ANKARA | Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:07pm EDT

(Reuters) - Turkey urged Syrian Kurds on Friday not to establish a break-away entity in northern Syria by force, with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warning against any "wrong and dangerous" moves that could hurt Turkish security.
The warning was issued at a meeting in Istanbul between Turkish intelligence officials and Saleh Muslim, head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), whose militias have been fighting for greater autonomy for Kurdish parts of northern Syria.
Muslim said last week that Kurdish groups aimed to set up an independent council to run Kurdish regions in Syria until the civil war ended. That would alarm Ankara, which is wary of deepening sectarian violence on its border.
Turkey is trying to hold together a delicate peace process with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants on its own soil and is worried that moves towards Kurdish autonomy in Syria could embolden them and jeopardize that process.
"Necessary warnings will be made to them that these steps they're taking are wrong and dangerous," Erdogan told reporters, as members of his National Intelligence Agency met Muslim.
Separately, a Turkish farmer was killed and his two sons were wounded on Friday when a mortar shell from fighting between Kurds and Islamist rebels in Syria hit their field near the border, officials at the local state hospital told Reuters.
The incident in the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar underscores fears that Syria's civil war, now in its third year, is dragging in neighboring states.
Last week Turkish troops returned fire and shot at PYD fighters after stray bullets from Syria killed a man and a 15-year-old boy in Ceylanpinar.
SEEKING ASSURANCES
Turkey wants to extract assurances from the PYD that it will not threaten Turkey's security or seek an autonomous region in Syria through violence, and that it will maintain a stance of firm opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"We have three main expectations from Kurds in Syria. Firstly not to cooperate with the regime. When that happens, tensions between the Kurds and Arabs rise," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Radikal newspaper.
"Two is not to establish a de-facto entity ... based on ethnic and sectarian lines without consulting with other groups," he was quoted as saying. "If such an entity is established, then all the groups would attempt to do the same thing and a war would be unavoidable."
His third expectation was that Kurds did not engage in activities that would "endanger Turkey's border security".
Muslim's meeting with the Turkish intelligence agency comes after a surge in violence on the Syrian side of the border.
The PYD captured the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain last week after days of clashes with Islamist rebel fighters from the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front.
ROAD MAP
Erdogan, who called a meeting of his military and intelligence chiefs as well as senior cabinet ministers on Wednesday to discuss the unrest, said they would come up with a plan soon to contain the violence.
"Our chief of staff, national intelligence agency and foreign ministry are working on this ... We will get together again and by discussing the developments over (the border) we will identify our steps and prepare a road map," he said.
Clashes between the PYD and rebels fighting Assad have flared since Kurds began asserting control over parts of northeast Syria from late last year. Turkish foreign ministry officials have met with the PYD twice over the past two months and have held "positive" discussions, a government source said.
The anti-Assad revolt has evolved from its origins as a peaceful protest movement in March 2011 into a civil war that has killed over 100,000 people and turned markedly sectarian.
Turkey has emerged as one of the strongest backers of the Syrian rebels, giving them shelter on its soil, but denies arming them. Along with its allies, Ankara has, however, tried to distance itself from hardline Islamist groups like Nusra.
"I view (their) behavior as a betrayal to the Syrian revolution," Davutoglu said, citing footage of killings and kidnappings carried out by radical groups.
"But we have always supported the legitimate Syrian opposition and we continue this support."
Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority has been alternately battling Assad's forces and the Islamist-dominated rebels. Kurds argue they support the revolt but rebels accuse them of making deals with the government in order to ensure their security and autonomy during the conflict.
Turkey meanwhile has been making gradual but fragile progress in its efforts to end a three-decade insurgency by the PKK in its southeast, a conflict which has killed some 40,000 people.
The PKK called a ceasefire this year but there has been a recent increase in militant activity and Kurdish politicians have voiced concern that the government has not been enacting promised reforms quickly enough.
(Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan and Ayla Jean Yackley; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Mike Collett-White)

Head of Syrian Kurdish group in Turkey for talks: sources

By Humeyra Pamuk and Gulsen Solaker

ANKARA | Fri Jul 26, 2013 5:48am EDT

(Reuters) - The head of a Syrian Kurdish group with links to militants in Turkey was in Istanbul on Friday for talks with government officials after an upsurge in fighting near the border, Kurdish political sources said.
Saleh Muslim, head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), whose militias have seized control of districts in northern Syria over the past year, arrived in Turkey late on Thursday, the sources told Reuters.
Turkey is keen to extract assurances from the PYD that it will not seek to carry out actions on Turkish soil, will not try to carve out an autonomous region on the border, and that it will maintain a stance of firm opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkish government officials said there were no plans for any high-level meetings. Some local newspaper reports said Muslim would meet intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and Foreign Ministry officials.
Muslim said last week that the PYD aimed to set up what he said would be an independent council to run Kurdish regions in Syria until the civil war ended, a move likely to alarm Ankara, wary of an autonomous Kurdish region emerging on its border.
Turkey is trying to hold together a delicate peace process with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants on its own soil and is worried that the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could further embolden them and jeopardize that process.
The PKK called a ceasefire this year as part of the efforts to end a three-decade conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives. But a recent increase in violence in the southeast has highlighted the fragility of the process. Kurdish politicians have voiced concern that the government has not been enacting promised reforms quickly enough.
CLASHES
The PYD captured the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain last week after days of clashes with Islamist rebel fighters from the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front.
Turkish troops shot at PYD fighters in Syria last week after two rocket-propelled grenades from Syria struck a border post on the Turkish side.
Two Turkish teenagers died when stray bullets from Syria hit the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar, adjacent to Ras al-Ain.
Clashes between PYD and rebels fighting Assad have erupted since Kurds began asserting control over parts of the northeast from late last year.
The anti-Assad revolt has evolved from its origins as a peaceful protest movement in March 2011 into a civil war that has killed over 100,000 people and turned markedly sectarian.
Turkey has emerged as one of the strongest backers of the Syrian rebels, giving them shelter on its soil, but denies arming them. Along with its allies, Ankara has, however, tried to distance itself from hardline Islamist groups like Nusra.
Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority has been alternately battling Assad's forces and the Islamist-dominated rebels. Kurds argue they support the revolt but rebels accuse them of making deals with the government in order to ensure their security and autonomy during the conflict.
(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Robin Pomeroy)

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region is preparing to host a conference together from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region is preparing to host a conference that will bring together Kurdish parties from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, an official said.

"The general conference will be held within a month from now," Adnan al-Mufti, a senior member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, told AFP news agency on Wednesday.
A preparatory meeting was held in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, on Monday, and was attended by 39 Kurdish parties.
"We want a complete agreement and a just and peaceful solution for the Kurdish issue," Kurdistan region president Massud Barzani told the meeting.
Major Kurdish populations are spread across four countries - Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
One of the most pressing issues is that of the Kurds in war-torn Syria, where they make up about 15 percent of the population and are mostly concentrated in the north.
Kurdish regions of Syria have been run by local Kurdish councils since President Bashar al-Assad's forces withdrew from the areas in mid-2012.
The Kurds have walked a fine line, trying to avoid antagonising either the Assad regime or the rebels seeking its overthrow, but fierce fighting has recently broken out between Kurdish forces and jihadists opposed to Assad.
And Syrian Kurdish officials said last week that they are planning to create a temporary autonomous government to administer Kurdish regions in the north of country.
[AFP]

Islamist-Kurdish fighting spreads in rebel-held Syria

(Reuters) - Clashes between Islamist rebel forces and Kurdish militias spread to a second Syrian province on Saturday, activists said, as factional tensions rose in the north of the country.
The fighting is further evidence that the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule has splintered into turf wars that have little to do with ousting him and highlight the risk of regionalized conflicts that could have an impact on neighboring countries.
The new round of fighting broke out in Tel Abyad, a border town near Turkey in the rebel-held Raqqa province. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes began after Kurdish militias in the area discovered fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group trying to rig one of their bases with explosives.
The Kurds retaliated by kidnapping several fighters, including the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, one of the most powerful Qaeda-affiliated forces fighting in Syria.
The country's revolt has transformed from a peaceful protest movement into a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and become increasingly sectarian.
Syria's marginalized Sunni Muslim majority has largely backed the rebellion against four decades of Assad family rule. Minorities such as Assad's own Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, have largely supported the president.
Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority, meanwhile, has been alternately battling both Assad's forces and the rebels. Kurds argue they are backers of the revolt but rebels accuse them of making deals with the government in order to ensure their security and autonomy during the conflict.
Divided between Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, the Kurdish people are often described as the largest ethnic group without a state of their own.
Activists also reported on Saturday a rare eruption of clashes between Assad's forces and rebels in the coastal province of Tartous, an Alawite enclave and Assad stronghold with only a few pockets of revolt.
The fighting broke out near the Sunni town of Banias, the site of a massacre of dozens of people only a few months earlier when militias loyal to Assad stormed the area after a rebel attack on their fighters.
COUNTER-ATTACKS
An activist from the area said Assad's forces launched a new assault after discovering more rebels operating in the area.
The Observatory reported a massing of security forces and militias loyal to Assad both near Banias and the Sunni village of Bayda, which was also the site of a massacre of dozens just days before the Banias killings.
Assad's forces have been on the offensive the past two months after a string of victories. They are trying to cement control of a belt of territory between the capital Damascus and his Alawite stronghold on the Mediterranean coast.
Security sources have said Assad's next move will be to push on to rebel-held territories near the border areas of northern and southern Syria, for which they are slowly trying to build up forces in the area.
Assad's offensive has been dogged by rebel counter-attacks in the north, even as a string of government victories elsewhere in Syria has shifted the battlefield tide in his favor after more than two years of bloodshed.
Activists said opposition forces advanced on the northern town of Khan al-Assal on Saturday and appeared close to seizing one of the last towns in western part of Aleppo province still held by Assad's forces.
Elsewhere in northern Syria, Assad's forces launched a third day of heavy air strikes on the town of Saraqeb in Idlib province.
Some activists suggested the army may be trying to hammer areas near a critical road leading to Aleppo in order to distract the rebels and bring in supplies to its forces.
Rebels have been blockading government-held areas in Aleppo city, Syria's largest urban centre. Aleppo has been mired in a bloody stalemate since rebels launched an offensive in the province last year.
Hardline Islamist rebels also appear to be leading the fight to seize Khan al-Assal. Western powers such as the United States are alarmed about the rising power of radical Islamist groups, particularly since Washington has pledged to offer military support to Assad's opponents.
No military aid has been given yet due to political deadlock over the Islamist issue in the U.S. Congress.
"Perhaps the Islamists are trying to stay out of the spotlight. They've been regrouping and naming themselves with numbers, things like 'the 9th Division' and so on, but these are the same Islamist radical groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham or the Islamic Front to Liberate Syria," one opposition activist said, declining to be named.
(Editing by Alison Williams)

Syrian Kurdish fighters expelled fighters of al-Qaeda linked groups from a checkpoint in the northeast

Syrian Kurdish fighters in the northeast of the country expelled fighters of al-Qaeda linked groups from a checkpoint on Saturday and seized their weapons and ammunition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The advance comes just days after Kurdish fighters loyal to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) expelled fighters allied to the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) from the strategic Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain.
"Clashes raged during the night from Friday to Saturday, pitting (Kurdish fighters) against Al-Nusra Front, ISIS and other (rebel) groups... near the villages of Tal Alu, Karhuk and Ali Agha," said the Britain-based Observatory.
The clashes "ended at 8:00 am (0500 GMT), when the Kurdish popular committees seized control of a... (key) checkpoint" there, said the group.
The Kurdish fighters then seized ammunition, light weapons, a vehicle mounting a heavy machine gun and a mortar launcher from the jihadists, the Observatory added. [AFP]

Kurdish fighters are strengthening their control in the northeastern corner of syria

Kurdish fighters are strengthening their control in the northeastern corner of Syria since regime forces withdrew last year.
Syria's Kurds may say they are just preventing other groups from imposing their will but this new front is just another fault line in Syria's war.
It appears that Syria's opposition forces are becoming increasingly divided.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Antakya, Turkey.

Syrian Kurdish group aims for independent local administration

By Erika Solomon and Isabel Coles

BEIRUT/ARBIL, Iraq | Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:01am EDT

(Reuters) - A Syrian Kurdish group said on Friday it aims to set up an independent council to run Kurdish regions until Syria's civil war has ended, a move likely to alarm Syrian rebels and neighboring Turkey, both wary of a possible Kurdish state.

Kurdish militias have seized control of districts in northern Syria in the past year since President Bashar al-Assad's forces focused elsewhere, and are now seeking to consolidate those gains despite deep divisions in their ranks.

Syria's two-year conflict has pitted the Kurds against Assad's forces at times, and against the rebels seeking to oust him at others.

Divided between Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, the Kurdish people are often described as the largest ethnic group without a state of their own. Kurdish militants and the government in Turkey have begun peace talks to end a conflict in the country's southeast that has claimed 40,000 lives.

The Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is proposing a local authority in northeastern Syria, is the strongest local Kurdish group due to its well armed and effective militias. It is believed to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group seeking autonomy in Turkey.

Saleh Muslim, the head of the PYD, said the proposals were under discussion by Kurdish groups.

"This is not a call for a separation it is just that for a year now we have been on our own in our own territories and people have needs, they want some kind of administration to run their issues, they cannot be left like that."

He said once an agreement is reached an election will be held within three to four months to chose administration officials. He expected a final decision in a week or two.

"This administration will be like a temporary government," PYD spokesman Nawaf Khalil told Reuters from his home in exile in Germany. "We need to protect our borders and our people, we need to do something to improve the economic situation.

"We also militarily have to face both Assad's regime and the rebels and the Turks. And we hope to try to improve our relationships with all of these neighbors."

KURDISH ENTITY

Rebels accuse the PYD of working with Assad and have sporadically fought the Kurds.

The rebels oppose a separate Kurdish entity, as does their ally and neighbor Turkey, which believes the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could embolden home-grown PKK militants. Mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey is strategically located on the country's borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran.

The Kurdish militias, who have allowed both Assad's and rebel forces to move through their territories, insist they are anti-Assad but do not want their region to suffer the sort of military devastation that has leveled many opposition areas across Syria.

There have been talks since last month between the PYD and its main rival, the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-S), under the auspices of Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region. But the two sides have yet to reach an agreement.

The PYD's opponents have played down the possibility of reaching an agreement but other political leaders have pushed for a deal, citing their concerns over intensifying clashes between the Kurds and the rebels in northeastern Syria.

"The recent fighting proved that the burden is on our shoulders," said Aldar Khalil of the Higher Kurdish Council, a group formed by Barzani to unite Syrian Kurdish parties,

"We are currently discussing a transitional administration. After that, we want to hold elections within three months. We must all take part," he said.

PYD militias have been engaged in fierce battles this week with al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels in northeastern Syria and seized the town of Ras al-Ain, which borders Turkey.

The PYD militias are also fighting the rebels for control of local oil fields, highlighting a struggle not only to establish dominance in the region but to assert control of the area's natural resources.

MILITIAS A STICKING POINT

A PYD source said that political leaders are already circulating a list of names to run the proposed administration.

Hamid Darbandi, a Kurdish Iraqi official, said that the PYD's proposal had still not been agreed by other parties. Another senior source, who asked not to be named, said a deal for governance in the area was necessary.

"The Syrian government is no longer capable of providing services and security," the source said. "It may be necessary for these Kurdish groups to develop arrangements and institutions to deliver basic services and security, and also prevent the extremist (rebel) groups from terrorizing the population."

PYD spokesman Khalil said his group also hoped to develop a draft for a transitional constitution in the region and put it to a referendum. But he denied this would lead to separation.

"It will be a framework for local administration. It is not uncommon for different regions in a country to have varying sets of laws and governance," he said.

The main sticking point between the PYD and its rivals, according to sources at the talks in Arbil, is the issue of who would run armed forces in the region.

The PYD says its militias should control armed protection, warning of a factional conflict within Syria's civil war if other parties are allowed to maintain their own militias. It has argued that other groups' fighters should be absorbed within its ranks, but other units have rejected this.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny; Editing by Giles Elgood)