ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The United States claims it is actively “in touch” with Syrian Kurdish political parties, yet it passed up an unprecedented opportunity for direct talks with Salih Muslim, the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria.
“My friend and colleague of many years Ambassador Robert Ford (U.S. Ambassador to Syria), other colleagues who work from here in Turkey in particular, and also around the world, are in touch with a wide variety of Syrian oppositionists including many Kurds,” US Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, told a press briefing in Ankara recently.
He also added that Turkey has had a dialogue with many Kurds in Syria “quite openly,” and subsequently the US government is “in touch with some of the factions from there.”
However, in late October Muslim was denied a visa by the United States to attend a conference in Washington DC organized by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).
Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the BDP, in an interview with Rudaw said the conference was the first of its kind in America.
“We have told them (US officials) it’s wrong not to grant Mr Muslim a visa so that he could visit the US,” Demirtas said.
Why did the United States pass up an unprecedented opportunity to get first-hand knowledge of the Syrian Kurdish plight? And why does the United States continue to marginalize the group in political talks with the Free Syrian Army and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad?
One explanation for this, according to Muslim, is Washington’s deep alliance with Turkey and efforts to appease the Ankara government, which fears the PYD’s growth could embolden its own Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).
The PYD is affiliated with the PKK, which is currently in a slow-moving peace process to end its three decade conflict with Turkey.
“We and Turkey consult totally intimately regarding what we together or separately are hearing from various Syrian opposition elements including the various Kurdish elements, tribal people, others,” Ricciardone said.
Muslim’s explanation may hold some validity with regards to the United States’ icy approach to Syrian Kurds, and Ricciardone’s statement shows there is a level of cooperation between Turkey and America on the matter.
Syrian Kurds have been continuously consolidating power in northern Syrian towns, which are populated predominantly by ethnic Kurds and had been taken over by al-Qaeda affiliates mixed up in Syria’s civil war.
Syrian Kurds have also taken control of important oil-producing areas, and have continually been making advances at crucial border crossing points with Turkey and Iraq.
An estimated 2,000 PKK fighters have also helped with pushing out jihadist fighters in the Kurdish territory in Syria, according to first-hand reports and accounts on the ground.
This could explain Turkey’s fear over the influence of the PYD’s increasing power in Syria, and why the United States has been treading so lightly with the Syrian Kurds, in an effort to avoid any political differences with Ankara.
Comments
4 1 Barzanji | 10 hours ago
The Americans are conducting a perverse and a strict policy of denial of the most elemental rights of the 40 millions strong Kurdish nation.They oppose their rights even to speak their Kurdish language and to have any say on their issues. Mr.Obama bears the ultimate responsability of this hostile policy. It is his personal choice, his own preference. Such a policy has neither strategic explanation nor any national interest.He is siding with Arabs,Turks and Persians against the Kurds.He enjoys to see the weak being abused and killed by the violent racists and fanatics.Mr Obams is genetically codified to side with the terror against the suffering poor and weak.He is against us because we are a decent nation,because we are valiant in the battlefield and because we are defeating his akins of the Alcaida and affiliates.
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0 0 Russel Check | 6 hours ago
Barzanji what is this? the US doesn't like us because we're good? it's because of this simple naivety you show that Kurds are laging behind, most Kurds just don't understand real politics, too many think that politics is done like in a children playground were children are good or mean to each other, this is about national interest, please read a little about the subject. The US can afford to ignore PYD even if PYD is making progress because PYD at this stage is still small and has no big backers, in other words just not "attractive" enough for them. Any Kurd who thinks that the US will risk it's relationship with Turkey for PYD at this stage shouldn't bother commenting because they really don't know what they're talking about. The same goes for the other opposition groups who are backed by rich Arab gulf countries, the US will not even trade the smallest Arab country for Kurds, why? because they have more mutual interest with them than with us, it's that simple! But we Kurds can change this, the first step is to understand the realty around us, where do we stand in the world marked? how much is our "value" compared to other nations? I doubt very much that policy makers in Hawler or any or any other part of Kurdistan have ever had such assessments, countries like the US has assessments on us and know exactly were we stand and what we can offer, they act towards us accordingly. So please put away these childish thoughts about good, bad, brave, democracy etc. these things have nothing to do with how nations interact, no country in the world can afford to base their foreign policy on "human rights", that could be a small part of it but NEVER the main component. The question is how can we increase our "value" and the first essential step is unity, we ca't even start without that.
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0 0 Atheist | 4 hours ago
Because Washington is full of bigotry, duplicity and hypocrisy! It's very important that we all know this!
