Kurds say Syria risks further destabilization if Assad loses power now
Syria risks further destabilization unless President Bashar Assad stays in power into the transitional period, a member of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) told Sputnik on Friday.
“Assad should in any case remain for a certain period until the transition, because otherwise the radical groups will lead the situation in Syria to become similar to that in Yemen and Somalia,” Abd Salam Ali said.
He further stressed that all of Syria’s long-standing problems “can be resolved only through federalization.”
“We need to find a formula that would allow Syria to remain united, but for everyone in Syria to feel that they gained their rights,” Salam Ali said.
Addressing the Russian draft of the Syrian constitution circulated at January 23-24 talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, he noted that it “partly, not completely, reflects what we would like to see.”
Syrian Kurds have long sought official recognition of the Kurdish language and their culture in Syria under Bashar al-Assad and his father’s regime.
Under Assad regime, the Kurdish language was not allowed to be taught in schools. In 1962, 20% of Syria’s ethnic Kurdish population were deprived of Syrian citizenship following a controversial census.
Syrian Kurds welcome the exclusion of the word “Arab” from the “Syrian Arab Republic” title in the Russian draft of the Syrian constitution, a member of the PYD Khaled Issa told Sputnik on Friday.
In 2013, Syrian Kurds have established three autonomous zones, or Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria) in 2013. On March 17, 2016 Syria’s Kurds declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan.
Syrian Kurds on Dec. 30, 2016 have approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in Syrian Kurdistan, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.
http://ekurd.net/kurds-destabilization-assad-2017-01-27
