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Syrian Kurdish Parties Not Invited to Opposition Summit in Turkey
RPS Notes: Unfortunately, the Damascus Declaration and the Muslim Brotherhood, in control of this meeting, have chosen to exclude many prominent parties and figures. Practicing exclusion cannot be shed so easily when one lives under either the Ba’athist or religious fundamentalist ideologies. They keep spinning “everyone is included” to further control the damage their policies are causing.
The Syrian opposition parties have decided to hold a summit in the coming weeks in the Turkish city of Antalya, to discuss the future of their country and introduce themselves to the world as the new leaders of Syria, once the reign of Bashar al-Assad has ended.
However, according to one Kurdish politician, the Kurdish political parties have not been called to this summit. Only independent figures are invited.
Waleed Shekho, a Kurdish activist who lives abroad, criticized this conference, saying that Kurdish political movements should be represented as well, not just independent Kurdish figures.
“The conference organizers have invited specific people, but not as representatives of the Kurdish nation and the Kurdish movements, which they’re disregarding,” said Shekho.
Although many people consider this summit to be a “historic opportunity” for creating a substitute to the Assad regime and uniting the voice of the Syrian opposition, Shekho said that Turkey and the organizers of this conference are trying to ignore the Kurds.
“This is a plan against the Kurdish movements in Syria and an attempt to keep out the Kurdish organizations. At the same time, it is about drawing Syria’s future. I’m afraid that this will divide the Kurdish voice and unity in Syria,” said Shekho.
However, Abdul Basit Hammo, a leading member and media secretary of Syria’s Kurdish Popular Union Party, believes that some Kurdish representatives have not received invitations to the conference because their parties have not yet made their stance about the situation in Syria and the Syrian regime clear.
Hammo, who lives in Germany, told Rudaw, “Our party has been formally invited to the summit in Antalya and we will participate and explain our views about the solutions for Kurdish issues and Syria’s future in a clear manner.”
Regarding claims that some Syrian parties and Turkey aim to disregard the Kurdish issues in Syria after the fall of Assad, Hammo said, “It is not clear yet who is behind the organization of this summit. We are ready for it and adamant about discussing the Kurdish issues and their solutions. If we feel there’s an anti-Kurdish angle to this conference, we will leave the place.”
Nuri Brimo, the information officer of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria, told Rudaw, “The Arabic parties of Syria have been invited to this summit, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which is one of the organizers, and the People’s Party, but no Kurdish party has been invited. Hammo and Jwankurd have been invited as known figures and not as political party representatives.”
Brimo rejected the idea that the Kurdish parties are undecided and their stance not clear.
“Our stance is very clear. Where do you think the youth who are protesting daily in the Syrian Kurdish cities come from? They are all part of the political parties,” he said.
Brimo, who is now living in Iraqi Kurdistan, said that he was invited by phone to attend the conference as a writer, and not as a political party representative, but he refused.
“They said, ‘we do not invite you as a political party representative,’” said Brimo. “I did not choose to go, and I believe the other Kurdish figures should not go either, so the boycotting will be general.”
Brimo hoped that those who have agreed to attend the summit will make clear their resentment towards the organizers’ selective invitations, and withdraw from the summit if they sense any downgrading of the Kurdish issues.
“We want to solve the Syrian issues together, as 23 million people. We support the talks of the Syrian parties, but we see this disregard of Kurdish entities as a plan or a pressuring, no matter where it comes from.”
Brimo said that parties that exist only on the Internet should not be regarded as alternatives to Syria’s Kurdish political parties, who have a lot of influence in current events in Syria.
Mahmood Muhammad also known as Abu Sabir, a leader and representative of the Syria’s Kurdistan Democratic Union, told Rudaw that not inviting the Kurdish parties simply means the summit organizers are not concerned about the Kurds.
“Unfortunately, summit organizers did not send any invitations to the Kurdish political parties; therefore we feel that their intentions with regard to the Kurds are not good. Turkey and the other parties plan to disregard the Kurds at their summits, and this does not bode well for the Kurdish people,” said Abu Sabir.
Abdu Sabir said that the reason for inviting a few Kurdish intellectuals was only to reduce the angry Kurdish reaction.
“To reduce the Kurdish outrage against the summit, they have invited few Kurdish figures—but as individuals, not as political entities. From Iraqi Kurdistan, they have invited two Syrian Kurds, Dr. Razwan Badini and Muhammad Hammo. I believe neither of them should have accepted,” said Abu Sabir.
Read more at Reform Party of Syria
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