KT Report:
On the eve of today’s opening of the ‘Geneva II’ international peace conference on Syria, Kurds took another step towards self-rule in Rojava when the Cizîre Canton of West (Syrian) Kurdistan declared democratic autonomy following a meeting yesterday in Amûde of the Legislative Assembly of the Democratic Autonomous Government of Western Kurdistan
ANF reports that the Cizîre Canton will be ruled by a presidential system and 22 ministries. Ekrem Heso, a Kurd, has been elected president of the canton, with Syriac Elizabet Gewriyê and Arab Husen Ezem as vice presidents. Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac have been designated as official languages of the canton.
Saleh Muslim, head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told AFP: “Soon similar councils will be named for Afrin and Kobani, the two other cantons of the Kurdish regions”.
“We can’t wait until there is a political solution for the Syrian crisis to start running affairs on the ground. People have to have their basic needs covered”.
Muslim stressed that “the council is not exclusively Kurdish … Muslim and Christian Arabs are also taking part. The idea is not for self-rule to be exclusive at all.”
This latest move towards autonomy follows on from the military successes of the YPG (Committees for the Protection of the Kurds) last year in resisting attempts by al Qaeda-affiliated jihadists to take control of the area. Despite this, calls for Syria’s Kurds to have representation at Geneva II have been ignored by the Western powers.
Not Christian Arabs, but Assyrian Syriac speaking Christians