09-08-2025
Damascus says Rojava unity conference serves ‘foreign agendas'
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior Damascus official on Friday said a unity conference, bringing together Syria's minorities to call for changes to the country's transitional constitution, served 'foreign agendas.'
The conference held in Hasaka, northeast Syria (Rojava) was 'distorted and perhaps serving foreign agendas,' said Nawar Najma, spokesperson for the Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections, the body overseeing Syria's first parliamentary elections since the fall of the regime.
More than 400 representatives from Syria's minority communities, including Kurds, Druze, Alawites, and Christians, attended the conference.
'The conference's location and nature do not truly reflect the slogans raised there,' Najma told Rudaw. 'These groups, which define themselves by sectarian and ethnic affiliation, do not necessarily represent all of their components.'
He warned that such conferences weaken Syria and present a 'false image' of the country being an 'artificial state.'
Syria's minority communities are concerned about their future in the country and decisions made by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and his Islamist-led government.
In March, Sharaa approved a constitutional declaration granting himself sweeping powers, including the authority to appoint all the judges of the constitutional court - the only institution capable of holding him accountable. In addition, 70 of the 210 seats in the parliament will be appointed by presidential decree. Critics have warned the interim constitution could entrench authoritarianism and marginalize minority communities.
The final statement from the conference called for the interim constitution to be amended 'to ensure broader participation and fair representation.'
The Kurdish-led Rojava administration, which hosted the conference, has engaged in dialogue with Syria's interim government regarding the integration of its civil and military institutions into state structures. Those talks, however, have stalled.
In April, Rojava hosted a pan-Kurdish conference in Qamishli that brought together rival parties to present a united front in negotiations over Rojava's future. Damascus condemned the conference at the time, calling it a separatist initiative.
Sheikh Murshid al-Khaznawi, a prominent Kurdish clergyman, said he backs decentralization.
'The absence of decentralization in Syria is what led to the denial of rights of all ethnic groups and components. Therefore, the main demand from the conference was the implementation of decentralization to ensure the protection of everyone's rights,' Khaznawi, who delivered a speech at the event, told Rudaw on Friday.
