On Friday, October 28, 2016, around 1 pm (local time), a group of hooded PYD members in a car abducted Mohamad Ameen Rashid, member of the local committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party – Syria (PDK-S), in front of the city bakery of al-Malikiyah (Dêrik). Later that day around 5 pm, Ahmad Shanke, another member of the local committee of the PDK-S, was kidnapped on his way home from al-Malikiyah to the village of Tabka by a group of disguised persons at the Western checkpoint of the city.
Since then, the wherabouts of both politicians is unknown. We hold the PYD accountable for their safety and physical integrity, and call on the PYD to publish information about their destiny.
We, the Kurdish National Council in Syria, denounce and reject the PYD’s political practices. We reiterate that the Kurdish people are increasingly outraged and strongly oppose such harmful acts against officials and politicians of the Kurdistan Democratic Party – Syria (PDK-S) as well as against other member parties of the KNC and their affiliates.
We emphasise that such systematically hostile policy towards the KNC cannot hinder the Council from fighting for the rights of Kurds.
We demand from the PYD to stop all policies and actions harming Kurds, ruining their reputation and violating human and democratic values. We appeal to the international community, to all stakeholders and Kurdish parties, to put pressure on the PYD to immediately release all officials, politicians and activists of the Kurdish National Council as well as other political detainees, whose only “wrongdoing” was to exercise the right of freedom of expression.
Al-Qamishli, 29 October 2016
General Secretariat of the Kurdish National Council in Syria