Latest news with #Intra-Kurdish
Rudaw Net
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Rojava to defend current status if Damascus rejects federalism: Official
Also in Syria UK repatriates 4 ISIS- linked nationals from Rojava SDF rescues Yazidi young man after 11 years in ISIS captivity SDF to hand over 200 Iraqi ISIS members to Baghdad Intra-Kurdish conference to be held in Rojava Friday A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior official from the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) said on Thursday that they plan to preserve the enclave's current status while engaging more actively in Syria's political process, despite the new government's rejection of federalism. 'Our current plan is to preserve what exists, and we will try to be more involved within Syria and participate in every process,' Elham Ahmad, co-chair of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria's (DAANES) foreign relations said during a panel at the Sulaimani Forum when asked about their plan if Syria's interim government opposes federalism. The interim government's officials and commanders have ruled out federalism. The Kurdish official warned that centralized systems have historically led to structural crises in diverse societies like Syria. 'We see that strictly centralized systems do not solve problems but deepen them,' she said. 'Syria must not return to [how it was] before 2011. It must be decentralized and give the rights of all Syrian components.' Her remarks come weeks after a deal was reached between interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi to integrate Rojava's civil and military institutions into the Syrian state. The SDF is the de facto army of Rojava. Ahmed called the agreement a 'historic point' which dispels accusations that the Kurdish administration seeks partition or separatism. 'We have always been accused of [wanting to cause] division and separation, so this agreement has put those accusations to rest,' she said. 'We are now in the phase of forming dialogue committees to discuss the bond of the agreement, how to implement it, and its mechanism.' Ahmed confirmed that 'many understandings' had also been reached regarding the strategic Tishreen Dam and Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh in northern Aleppo which had long been under SDF control. This follows a 14-point agreement signed in early April that includes a prisoner swap and outlines joint security oversight in Aleppo. As part of the broader agreement, Damascus-aligned forces and the SDF on Sunday began jointly managing security of the neighborhoods. The dam became the target of intensified attacks by Turkish-backed militia groups following the ouster of the former regime. Rojava's Ahmed reiterated that the Kurdish administration demands participation in drafting Syria's new constitution. 'What is happening now is that Syria's future is being specified by one side,' she said. 'We see ourselves as important and serious partners in the process of rebuilding Syria.' Sharaa signed a 53-article interim constitutional declaration in March, criticized by minority communities for reinforcing authoritarianism and religious exclusion. It preserves Syria's name as the 'Syrian Arab Republic,' makes Arabic the sole official language, and stipulates Islamic jurisprudence as a primary source of legislation. It also requires that the president be Muslim. The declaration has drawn backlash from various groups, including Syria's Druze community. Their spiritual leader, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari, who in March called the government 'extremist in every sense of the word.' At the Sulaimani panel, Ahmed noted that many Syrians - including Druze, Alawites, Christians, and a significant secular segment of the Sunni Arab population - reject centralism. 'Most in Syria demand decentralization,' she said. Druze military and political forces in Suwayda have refused to disband and repeatedly called for decentralization. Bahaa al-Jamal, the Druze commander in Suwayda, told Rudaw in March that the declaration is 'not accepted' and that the community 'ought to have been included' in the process. He added that the Druze will only recognize Syria's president 'through fair elections.' In March, Rojava's ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the opposition Kurdish National Council (ENKS) agreed on a joint list of demands, including federalism. 'The unification of the Kurdish stance is the starting point,' said Hoshyar Zebari, a senior official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), who voiced support for the demands. The KDP, led by Masoud Barzani, has maintained ties with both ENKS and the SDF. In January, Barzani met publicly with Abdi in Erbil, followed by talks between Abdi and ENKS that led to a plan to send a united Kurdish delegation to Damascus. Peter Galbraith, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and fellow panelist, highlighted Syria's vast social and ideological divisions and argued that federalism offers the best path forward. 'How do you reconcile a part of Syria, northeast Syria, which has its own political system, strict gender equality... with one in Idlib, which is Islamist?' he asked. 'Federalism in Syria is likely to keep Syria together.' The Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose leaders rule Syria, was formed from factions previously affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS). HTS leader Sharaa has attempted to rebrand, but international critics point to extremist ties. Some members of the newly formed cabinet in Damascus - such as Interior Minister Anas Khattab - were designated as terrorists by the US and the UN in the early years after the civil war in 2011. Prior to ousting the former regime, the HTS had long controlled Idlib in northwestern Syria. Galbraith stressed that around 40 percent of Syria's population is not Sunni Arab, and even among Sunni Arabs, many are secular, echoing claims made earlier by Ahmed. 'The idea that one particular ideology coming out of Idlib led by somebody who used to be ISIS and used to be al-Qaeda could somehow control Syria, is something that is not in the interest of the people of Syria and frankly not in the interest of the rest of the world,' he said Galbraith proposed elections based on proportional representation as a way to ensure diverse representation and inclusivity across Syria's fractured landscape. 'We're hoping to reach deeper understandings regarding the constitutional process, the political process, and the process of rebuilding Syria anew,' Ahmed said during the discussion.
Rudaw Net
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
SDF rescues Yazidi young man after 11 years in ISIS captivity
Also in Syria SDF to hand over 200 Iraqi ISIS members to Baghdad Intra-Kurdish conference to be held in Rojava Friday SDF, Syrian forces begin joint oversight of Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in Aleppo SDF-Damascus deal vital for Syria's future: Rojava's US rep A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Tuesday that they have rescued a Yazidi man who was abducted by the Islamic State (ISIS) around 11 years ago, when he was just eight years old. The individual was taken along with his family during ISIS's brutal assault on the predominantly Yazidi district of Shingal (Sinjar) in the summer of 2014. In a statement, the SDF said that its military operations units carried out a 'special security operation' on March 12, 2025 to free the kidnapped Yazidi individual. For privacy reasons, Rudaw has identified the young man only by his initials, O.K. According to the SDF, the Yazidi man 'is originally from the village of al-Wardiya in the Sinjar region, which witnessed large-scale massacres committed by ISIS, and where thousands of men, youth, and elders were killed, and more than 7,000 women and girls were abducted.' O.K. 'was one of the victims of that massacre.' Now 19, O.K. was quoted by the SDF statement as sharing the harrowing story of his abduction by ISIS. 'I was born in 2006, and I was just a child when ISIS kidnapped me in 2014. ISIS captured me and my family, but separated me and my brother.' He said that he was held in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which ISIS in 2014 declared as the capital of its proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq. He remained in Mosul for three months before being separated from his brother and transferred, along with 60 other Yazidi children, to the city of Albu Kamal in eastern Syria. 'After arriving in Al-Bukamal, ISIS subjected us to a three-year religious indoctrination course. I was given the name 'Osama al-Sinjari.' Then we were moved to the Syrian desert for another three years of military training,' he recounted. Following that, he was sent to the Homs desert in western Syria, where he served as an ISIS fighter for four years. During this time, he sustained a landmine injury to his right leg. O.K. noted that near the end of 2024 and 'while I was getting treatment at one of the ISIS hideouts in the Homs desert, the hideout was struck by an intense airstrike from the [US-led] Global Coalition [to Defeat ISIS], which resulted in the death of 20 terrorists, including high-ranking commanders.' 'I miraculously survived the bombing,' he said, expressing his relief and gratitude toward the SDF for 'liberating him and thousands of other Yazidis, particularly women, from the grip of ISIS.' During its 2014 assault on Shingal, ISIS abducted 6,417 Yazidi women and children, many of whom were subjected to sexual slavery and forced labor. Although the group was territorially defeated in Iraq by 2017 and in Syria by 2019, it continues to pose a security threat in the region. As of now, 2,590 Yazidis remain missing, according to the Office of Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Presidency.
Rudaw Net
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
SDF to hand over 200 Iraqi ISIS members to Baghdad
Also in Syria Intra-Kurdish conference to be held in Rojava Friday SDF, Syrian forces begin joint oversight of Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in Aleppo SDF-Damascus deal vital for Syria's future: Rojava's US rep Syria needs sanctions lifted for economic recovery: former UN official A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Baghdad is set to receive 200 Iraqi nationals affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), along with three separate batches of the group's family members. Rudaw has learned that the handover agreement was signed on January 11 in the presence of two officers from the US-led coalition against ISIS. Iraq's migration and displaced ministry and the Nineveh Provincial Council both confirmed the agreement but clarified that the matter falls outside their jurisdictions. 'We are aware of such an agreement, but we have no information about whether these wanted individuals have been handed over. This issue is not under our ministry's purview and lies with other authorities,' Ali Abbas, spokesperson for the migration and displaced ministry, told Rudaw on Monday. Mohammed Kakayi, head of the security committee in the Nineveh Provincial Council, stated that the detainees would be repatriated directly to Baghdad and would not pass through Mosul. 'This matter falls under the authority of the Iraqi intelligence agency. The ISIS fighters are handed over directly to them,' he explained. Thousands of individuals with suspected ISIS ties are held in SDF-controlled al-Hol and Roj camps in northeast Syria's (Rojava) Hasaka province. Al-Hol is the larger of the two, currently housing 34,927 ISIS-linked individuals. Of these, 15,681 are Iraqis, 15,861 are Syrians, and 6,385 are foreigners, according to data obtained by Rudaw English from Sheikhmous Ahmed, supervisor of refugee and IDP camps in northeast Syria. The families are typically transferred to al-Jada camp south of Mosul, where they undergo rehabilitation and reintegration programs supervised by the Iraqi migration and displaced ministry. However, the 200 detainees set to be transferred in this instance are ISIS fighters specifically requested by Baghdad due to their direct involvement in attacks against Iraqi civilians and security forces. Since 2014, thousands of individuals have been detained across Iraq for alleged links to ISIS. Hundreds have been executed. Human rights groups have criticized the judicial process, citing forced confessions, a lack of investigation into specific crimes such as genocide, and the exclusion of victims from the proceedings. ISIS captured vast swathes of northern and central Iraq in 2014, but the group's so-called caliphate was dismantled in 2017 after Iraqi and Kurdish forces, with support from a US.-led international coalition, retook the territory. Hastyar Qadir contributed to this report.
