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Syrian opposition groups reject PYD efforts to promote federalism

August 16, 2017 at 3:26 am

ALEPPO – Syrians stage a protest against the PYD in Bab district of Aleppo, Syria

Several Syrian opposition organizations have rejected efforts by the Kurdish force, the PYD – a Kurdish political party – and the Syrian Democratic Council that aims at establishing a federal system in Syria.

In a joint statement, opposition groups denounced decisions to create the appearance of a federal system as “devoid of legal, as well as constitutional and popular legitimacy and do not count since they came through the imposition of a de facto policy that silences and omits the role of people and its elected national institutions under conditions of internal and external displacements.”

The statement went on “all the councils and bodies formed by the PYD organization and what result from them do not reflect the minimum amount of popular consensus and lack popular consent even by the Kurdish founder himself.”

It also stressed that “these bodies do not reflect any real participation by different social groups, as well as by the political and social elite, except for the use of certain marginalized elements in order to show the participation of different groups of society.”

PYD controls vast areas of Northern Syria, including most parts of Al-Hasakah (northeast) and extends to the northern countryside of the Province of Raqqa, until the Afrin region (north-west).

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The statement called on Syrian people to make sure they raise awareness among all segments of society in all regions about “the danger of these ideological projects that are paving the way for separation in the future, and to trust that their will is capable of upsetting all balances and thwarting all the projects and plots against them.”

The organizations that signed the statement include “the National Association for Arab Youth, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces in Al-Hasakah, the Raqqa Province Council, the National Movement of the Islanders, the Turkmen Society, the Raqqa Teachers Union and Al-Hasakah Youth Union.”

In a statement to Anadolu regarding this matter, Ibrahim Al-Habash, one of the members of the Al-Hasaka Youth Union, said: “We as journalists and activists demand that the US and other countries stop supporting this organization under the pretext of fighting Daesh.”

He called on these countries to “pay attention to the terrorism and crimes against the people of the region instead of turning a blind eye on them.”

He stressed that fact that “the idea of federalism was formed unilaterally, by imposing the de facto policy and bullying others with their weapons, in addition to a deliberate distancing of people and original inhabitants from decision-making.”