Politics of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria
Symbols Symbols of Rojava
Constitution Libertarian socialism Human rights
Legislature and Government Syrian Democratic Council Executive Council
Elections March 2015 (Local) September 2017 (Local) December 2017 (Regional)
Political parties Democratic Union Party (PYD) Syriac Union Party (SUP) Wheat Wave Movement (QMH) Syrian National Democratic Alliance (SNDA) Honor and Rights Convention (HRC) Yekîtiya Star (YS) Arab National Coalition (ANC) Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDP-S) Syrian Kurdish Democratic Party (PDKS 1970) Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYDKS or Yek-Dem) Syrian Democratic Society (SDS) Democratic Modernity Party (DM) Democratic Socialist Arab Ba'ath Party (PB-ASD) Left Party of Syrian Kurds (LPSK) Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party (PDPKS) Assyrian Democratic Party (ADP) Syrian Kurds' Democratic Peace Party (PADKS) Democratic Transformation Party (DT) Kurdistan Liberal Union Party (PYLK) Kurdish Democratic Accord Party (Wifaq) Syrian Reform Movement (Islah) Yazidi House (Êzîdî) Syriac National Council (SNC) Patriotic Initiative (PI)
Party alliances Democratic Nation List (LND)/Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) Kurdish National Alliance in Syria (HNKS) Assembly for Democracy and the Left (KDCK) Kurdish National Council (ENKS) Syria's Tomorrow Movement (TM)
Administrative regions Jazira Region Euphrates Region Afrin Region
Foreign relations Relations with the Syrian government YPG-FSA Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict Rojava conflict Kurdish nationalism Iraqi Kurdistan
Other countries

The Democratic Union Party (Kurdish: Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat, PYD; Arabic: حزب الاتحاد الديمقراطي, Ḥizb Al-Ittiḥad Al-Dimuqraṭiy) is a Kurdish political terrorist organization^[2][3][4] established in 2003 by Kurdish activists^[5] in northern Syria. It is a founder member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, it is described by the Carnegie Middle East Center as "one of the most important Kurdish opposition parties in Syria".^[6] The PYD has managed to control a number of towns in northern Syria.^[7] Chemical engineer Saleh Muslim became its chairman in 2010, and Asiyah Abdullah its co-chairwoman in June 2012.^[6] In February 2016, the PYD opened a representative office in Moscow, its first in a foreign country.^[8]

Ideology

On its website, the PYD describes itself as believing in "social equality, justice and the freedom of belief" as well as "pluralism and the freedom of political parties". It describes itself as "striving for a democratic solution that includes the recognition of cultural, national and political rights, and develops and enhances their peaceful struggle to be able to govern themselves in a multicultural, democratic society."^[5]

It has been claimed that the PYD is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).^[9] Both parties are member organisations of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). The Democratic Union Party considers jailed PKK and KCK founder Abdullah Öcalan as its ideological leader and Democratic Confederalism its ideology. It incorporates into the United Kurdish Community in Western Kurdistan (KCK – Rojava) with its own organisational identity.^[10]

Like the KCK umbrella in general, and even more so, the PYD is critical of any form of nationalism, including Kurdish nationalism.^[11] They stand in stark contrast to Kurdish nationalist visions of the Kurdish National Council.^[12]

Relationship with Turkey

Despite its current apparent strength in Syria, the group's leader, Salih Muslim, claims that the group desires Kurdish autonomy within a new democratic Syria rather than Kurdish independence.^[11] Because of the party's links with the PKK, the PYD has poor relations with Turkey, which views the PYD as merely a Syrian branch of the PKK. The Turkish government's relationship with the Kurds has deteriorated since the Siege of Kobanî, a number of attacks in Turkey were blamed on the PKK and Kurdish strongholds were bombed in response, prompting the PKK to announce the end of the negotiated ceasefire.^[13] Turkish President Erdogan has threatened that he would not allow the creation of a Kurdish structure which has close relationships with PKK in Syria. Erdogan also views the recent territorial gains by the PYD as being the result of a deliberate transfer from Assad to the PYD.^[14]

The PYD were apparently not invited to a meeting between the Turkish Foreign Minister, the Syrian National Council, and the Kurdish National Council to discuss the future of Syria. This has led some to suggest that the Turkish government is trying to encourage the marginalization of the PYD in the Kurdish opposition due to the group's links with the PKK.^[15] Muslim held talks with Turkish officials in July 2013 in regards to seeking autonomy within Syria. According to some sources, Turkey's demands included that the PYD not seek autonomy through violence, not harm Turkish border security and be firmly opposed to the Syrian government.^[16]

Saleh Moslem threatened Turkey with a Twitter message on 24 August 2016, "Turkey is in Syrian Quagmire. will be defeated as Daish."^[17][18][19]

History

Origins and foundation (2003 and prior)

While the Syrian Ba'ath government had always been oppressive towards its own Kurdish minority, former president Hafiz al-Assad supported Kurdish factions in neighboring Iraq and Turkey in order to exert pressure on regional rivals. In 1975, Assad offered the Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani a safe haven in Damascus to found his new Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). From the 1980s, Assad also supported the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against his regional rival Turkey, when he bowed to pressure from Ankara and sought improved political and economic relations.

This only changed in the late 1990s when Turkey became serious about threatening Syria with war. After 19 years in Syria, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan had to flee on October 9, 1998, only to be captured by Turkish agents several months later. Subsequently a mutual security pact between Turkey and Syria was concluded on 20 October in the Turkish city of Adana. The Syrian government listed the PKK as a "terrorist organisation", withdrew all support for it, and agreed to strategically cooperate with Turkey against it. The PKK soon was forced to largely abandon its former bases in Syria in the face of this. Some sources say that against this backdrop, the PYD was secretly founded in 2003 by PKK and according to the Carnegie Middle East Center the PYD suffered years of violent repression at the hands of the Syrian regime.^[6]

Underground activism and state repression (2004–2010)

Though Syrian security forces had already for several years been targeting PKK members who stayed in Syria, the PYD came under intensified persecution in the aftermath of the March 2004 Kurdish uprising across northern Syria. According to Human Rights Watch, the Syrian government saw the party as a particular threat due to its "ability to mobilise large crowds", and suspected it of organising numerous demonstrations. Therefore, many PYD activists imprisoned in the aftermath of the uprising were not given the amnesty that Bashar al-Assad granted other Kurdish detainees as a later goodwill gesture.^[20]

On 2 November 2007, PYD activists organised large demonstrations in Qamishli and Ayn al-Arab (Kurdish: Kobanê), drawing hundreds of Kurds to protest against recent Turkish threats—supported by Assad—to invade Kurdish areas in northern Iraq where the PKK was based. Security forces—including a unit imported from Damascus—fired teargas in an effort to disperse the crowds. When some protesters reportedly began to resist by throwing stones, the police opened fire with live ammunition, killing one and injuring at least two more. Dozens of Kurds (among them women and children) were detained in the ensuing police crackdown. Most were soon released, but 15 activists—3 of them party officials—remained imprisoned and were sent before a military court on various charges.^[20]

From 2006 to 14 April 2009, at least two dozen PYD activists were formally tried before a special security court, some receiving sentences from five to seven years on charges of membership in a "secret organisation" and seeking "to cut off part of Syrian land to join it to another country". Many others were detained, often in severe conditions and without basic legal rights—some of those released reported being kept in extended solitary confinement and even being subjected to physical and mental torture. Syrian security forces also often continued to harass activists and their families even following their release. While similar methods were employed against many Kurdish prisoners and activists in Syria, Human Rights Watch has noted that security forces tended to reserve their harshest treatments for PYD members.^[20]

Conflict in Syria and Kurdish self-rule (2011–present)

Stance in early stages of the conflict (March 2011–July 2012)

With the outbreak of antigovernment demonstrations across Syria in early 2011, the PYD joined the Kurdish Patriotic Movement in May, and was a founding member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in July and of the KCK-aligned People's Council of Western Kurdistan in December. Unlike most other Kurdish Syrian parties, it did not join the Kurdish National Council (KNC) when it was formed in October 2011, because of tensions between pro-KNC Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government leader Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the PKK.^[6] The PYD has been accused by opposition elements of responsibility for the October 2011 assassination of KNC leader Mashaal Tammo,^[7] while the PYD has maintained that Turkey was responsible.^[21] Although critical of the Syrian government, the PYD also criticised the Syrian opposition, including the Syrian National Council (SNC), which it accused of acting in Turkey's interests.^[6] The SNC's unwillingness to support Kurdish autonomy led all but one of its Kurdish parties to leave by February 2012.^[22] Over 640 prisoners related to PYD were released by the Syrian security apparatus in 2011, most of which returned to the North.^[23]

Assertion of control in Rojava (July 2012–July 2013)

In mid-2012 the People's Council of Western Kurdistan signed an agreement with the Kurdish National Council, forming a joint Kurdish Supreme Council (Kurdish Supreme Committee) and agreeing to cooperate on security for Kurdish areas, forming People's Protection Units (YPG).^[6][24] This followed an "operational decision made by the Assad regime in mid-July 2012 to withdraw the majority of its forces from Syria’s Kurdish areas" (leaving a strong presence only in Qamishli and Al-Hasakah), prompted by a major opposition offensive against the capital Damascus.^[22] According to the Carnegie Middle East Center, "Despite these agreements, the Kurdish National Council has accused the PYD of attacking Kurdish demonstrators, kidnapping members of other Kurdish opposition parties, and setting up armed checkpoints along the border with Turkey."^[6] In mid-2012 Reuters cited unconfirmed reports that the towns of Amuda, Derik, Kobani and Afrin were under PYD control.^[7] Abdelbasset Seida, head of the opposition Syrian National Council claimed in July 2012 after a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that the Syrian Army had handed over control of certain parts of northeastern Syria to the PYD. The PYD's alleged control over certain areas was said to have led to disputes and clashes between the PYD, the KNC, and the Syrian National Council.^[7]

The PYD soon became the dominant force in the Kurdish opposition, with its members running checkpoints on major roads and entrances to Kurdish cities.^[25] Under the agreement, cities that fall under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces will be ruled jointly by the PYD and the KNC until an election can be held.^[26]

Moves toward official autonomy (July 2013–present)

Syrian government forces have withdrawn from three Kurdish-inhabited areas and handed military control to Kurdish militias in 2012. In November 2013, the PYD announced an interim government, divided into three non-contiguous autonomous areas or cantons, Afrin, Jazira and Kobani.^[27]

"Kurdish rebels are establishing self-rule in war-torn Syria, resembling the Zapatista experience and providing a democratic alternative for the region."^[28]

See also

• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War
• Kurdistan Free Life Party
• Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party
• Abdullah Öcalan
• Kurdish people

References

External links

Media related to Democratic Union Party (Syria) at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website