Kurdish leader: Kurds denies desire of autonomy in northern Syria

A Syrian Kurdish leader denied any intention of establishing their long-dreamed autonomy in northern Syria, saying what the Kurds want is to "temporarily" administer their areas until the long-standing crisis in Syria is resolved nationally. Trying to allay fears of the Kurds' obscure desires, Jamal Mulla Mahmoud said that "the proposed Kurdish project that has stirred some controversy in the media is absolutely not a separatist project and also not a project of autonomy." Speaking to Xinhua in an interview Thursday, the head of the Kurd's Democratic Party said the "Kurdish project contains a call to study the project of a temporary local administration only... that is its exact name: temporary local administration... It means that we are now in need to temporarily administer our areas until the national crisis of Syria is solved nationally and the Kurdish issue is solved nationally, too." Since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria nearly three years ago, the Kurds, who mostly live in the north of the embattled country, have strived to keep the rebels out of the areas they control in order to avoid sparking a confrontation with the Syrian army and to ensure that their territory remained free of violence. In mid-2012, Syrian troops withdrew from the majority of the Kurdish areas, and Kurdish militia, mainly the People Protection Unites (YPG), became responsible for security there. But as the circle of violence stretched to engulf all Syrian cities, the Kurds, who pose some 15 percent of Syria's 23 million inhabitants, have found themselves obliged to fight against the al- Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, which are considered the striking forces among the fractured armed opposition groups. The radical rebels have tried to overrun Kurdish areas as part of their bigger plan to control large swathes of territories in the northern provinces of Aleppo, Hasaka, Qamishly and al-Raqqa. Recently, fighting broke out in northern Syria between the Kurds and al-Qaida-affiliated groups, and it covered all the Kurdish areas in the north. The Kurds emerged victorious and gained ground in a number of areas in the north, mainly in Ras al- Eyn area, which is adjacent to Turkey as well as in Kobani and Tal Abyadh near the crossing border between Syria and Turkey, where they had expelled jihadists from a string of villages. While stressing that the Kurds are determined to protect themselves and their areas and won't accept strangers to sneak into those areas, Mahmoud said that "clashes are still ongoing between the Kurds' People Protection Unites and the terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the Nusra Front along with other battalions that revolve in their orbits." He revealed that his party had information about a "huge Turkish logistical support to those groups." "Since day one of the Syrian crisis, the Kurds haven't allowed the neighboring, regional countries to control the Kurdish areas or other areas in northern Syria and this is one of the main cross- purposes between the Kurds and the Turks who wanted to control those areas but the Kurds rejected the Turkish sway," he said. He said the Turks had tried to drag the Kurds into joining the Turkish-backed Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the main Syrian opposition umbrella group in exile. "But they have failed because the Coalition is largely mortgaged to the Turkish policies, which run counter to the Kurd's approach." Some Syrian opposition parties, after failing to convince Kurdish parties to join their ranks, accused the Kurds, especially the Kurdish Union Party, of collaborating with the Syrian government, a charge most Kurds have repeatedly denied. Giving an opinion about the overall course of the 28-month- crisis, Mahmoud warned of the growing terrorism in Syria as it has become the number-one destination of global terrorism. "If the terrorism in Syria thrives and takes hold, it would become a depth to the terrorism in Iraq and it would creep to Iraq 's Kurdistan and would hurt the entire region." Mahmoud also stressed that what further complicated the Syrian crisis is the involvement of regional and international interests whose contradiction is further drifting Syria from the shores of the peaceful reconciliation. "The Syrian crisis has become complicated as a result of the interference of two circles; the regional circle that entered the crisis along with the international one and when both circles are loosened, the national solution would have a chance. What complicates the national solution is not the Syrian people's inability to reach an understanding, but the regional and international interests' inability to reach an understanding."