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KT News:
Salih Muslim
PYD leader Salih Muslim has outlined his objectives for an autonomous Kurdish region in a federal Syria. In an interview with the AFP, Muslim also insisted that Syria’s Kurds can live in peace with Syria’s Arabs.
“The (Syrian) Kurdistan region will be divided into three autonomous provinces: Kobani (central), Afrin (west) and Qamishli (east),” he said on Sunday.
“The goal is not to secede, but the Kurds want a federal system in Syria,” he said.
“It’s not the creation of an autonomous government. However, 19 representatives were chosen in July to prepare a constitution and an electoral law and to define the mechanisms by which the region will be led”.
“This commission has finished its work, and a date will soon be set for elections,” he added.
Muslim referred to continuing with clashes with jihadists, whose tactics have included leaving car bombs in civilian areas. He said the jihadists are “supported and sent by the Turkish government”.
“We have been helped by our people, the Iraqi Kurds, the Iraqi president (Jalal Talabani) and by the PKK,” Muslim said – pointedly not referring to any help from the Kurdistan Regional Government and its president Masud Barzani.
Muslim stated that Syria’s Kurds wish to live in peace with Arabs who do not seek to wage war against them.
“There are three sorts of Arabs among us: there are those with whom we have always lived and who we have fought alongside. We defend the brotherhood between these peoples,” he said.
“There are those who do not belong, Arabs who came from outside, other countries or the region, the jihadists who have burned our homes, and decapitated Kurds”.
“Finally, there are the Arabs who were moved to Kurdistan by force by (Syrian president) Hafez Al Assad… to Arabise the region.”
“They are victims… and we advocate a peaceful solution for these populations: those who can return to their hometowns should do so and the others can live in peace with the Kurds.”
