Once again the headquarters of the Kurdish National Council in Syria in the city of Qamişlo in al-Hasakah province in North East Syria have been charged and shut down by armed forces of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) yesterday evening, May 9, 2017. In the course of the operation, thirteen members of the KNC’s general secretary, present at the office at that moment, have been arbitrarily arrested. The secretary general has published the following press release:
In continuation of their terrorist practices and their repressive policy, the armed forces of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) have charged the headquarters of the Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC) in the city of al-Qamishli (kurd. Qamişlo), closed it down a second time and arrested those officials of the KNC’s member parties who were present at the office and who are also members of the KNC’s secretary general.
They are:
1. Fasla Yusuf
2. Narin Matini
3. Mahmud Mala
4. Muhsin Taher
5. ʿAbdulsamad Khalaf Biro
6. Fathi Gado
7. Ahmad Aje
8. Mahmud Haj ʿAli
9. Farhad Tame
10. Muhammad Amin Husam
11. Nuralddin Fatah
12. Taher Hassaf
13. Qasim Sharif
With its terrorist practices, the PYD wants to keep the KNC and its supporters from pursuing their activities for the Kurdish population. Moreover, it wants to put an end to political diversity in Syrian Kurdistan by force of arms. The PYD exploits that the international focus is on fighting ISIS. It wants to force the KNC to acknowledge the PYD’s administration and to distract from its failed management of the Kurdish regions.
The PYD’s terrorist practices reveal the hypocrisy of its claims regarding its democratic attitude, they attest to the PYD’s fear of the KNC’s work for the Kurdish population and show its growing isolation from the population. This strategy will only encourage us all the more to continue on our path for the Kurdish population, to defend it and to withstand this party’s practices. These practices have led to the Kurdish regions’ depopulation, which only serves the abominable agenda of the Baʿth party.
Secretary General of the Kurdish National Council in Syria
May 9, 2017
Translation from the Arabic original by the office of the project “Capacity Building: Kurdish National Council in Syria”, Berlin.