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Syrian Kurds Declare Autonomous Northern Region
Stephen Lendman
Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) officials meeting with Arabs and other northern Syria ethnic groups in Rmeilan, in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province, agreed on establishing area autonomy, short of declaring independence - acting perhaps with tacit US support.
Turkey remains adamantly opposed, a foreign ministry statement saying acting unilaterally has no validity.
Syrian UN envoy/head of its Geneva III delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari, said his government intends preserving the nation’s sovereign independence and territorial integrity.
“(B)etting on creating any kind of divisions among the Syrians will be a total failure,” he stressed. Separately, he ruled out meeting with chief opposition negotiator Mohammad Alloush - calling him a “terrorist” involved in bombing embassies and killing civilians.
PYD representative Ibrahim Ibrahim said “(a) federal state for ruling all of Syria is the best way to protect Syria from being divided up, because there is major distrust among the different sides.”
Syrian YPG forces control around 250 miles of territory along the border with Turkey, running south to the Iraqi border.
The region reportedly will be named the Federation of Northern Syria, representing all its ethnic groups, remaining part of the Syrian Arab Republic.
After conflict forced government forces to abandon Rojava (Western Kurdistan), it’s been run as a Kurdish-administered autonomous region, its population comprising the majority of its residents.
In January 2014, the Democratic Union Party (YPD) declared the three Rojovan cantons (Afrin, Kobane and Jazira) autonomous.
Wednesday’s announcement comes on day three of Geneva III peace talks, Kurds excluded from participating, Lavrov calling them left out a “demonstration of weakness,” an obstacle to conflict resolution.
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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs
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