Situation in Syrian Kurdistan worse than the rest of Syria: Kurdish Freedom Party leader
Juma has been arrested by the Syrian regime many times, most recently in 2009. He spent 28 months in regime prisons before being released at the beginning of the revolution in 2011.
Q: How do you assess the situation in Syrian Kurdistan now?
Juma: I think the situation in Syrian Kurdistan is much worse than elsewhere in Syria. The reason for this is the PYD. They stop anyone who doesn’t think like them. They arrest political opponents and even assassinate some.
Over the past couple of weeks, for instance, the PYD arrested 50 members of our party and of the al-Parti (Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria) in Efrin city. In general the PYD attacks other Kurdish parties, detaining them on baseless accusations such as that they are spies for Turkey or Iran, even while the PYD leader himself travels to those countries every now and then.
Q: But the PYD claims that the Freedom Party has ties with the enemies of Kurds?
Juma: Those are baseless accusations – that we are cooperating with Jabhat al-Nusra or meeting with them... Actually, it is the opposite. They release statements against us and consider us infidels because we are a secular party.
Q: There is conflicting news about a massacre committed in Syrian Kurdistan. Do you believe that it happened?
Juma: Members of the fact-finding committee established by the Kurdish National Conference to investigate the killings in Syrian Kurdistan weren’t able to visit hot spots in Syria. They were stopped by the PYD which is in control of those areas. I won’t deny that massacres have been committed against Kurds by Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Syria)
Still, part of the blame goes to the PYD because they have put themselves in control of those areas and they alone decide whether or not to go to war. I don’t want to find excuses for the terrorists committing massacres against Kurds, but it was the PYD which first attacked Arab villages, leading them to attack the Kurds.
Q: So that means you acknowledge that massacres have been committed against the Kurds in Syria?
Juma: Yes, there have been mass killings. For example 27 people were killed in one place, 10 in another place and 5 in another place. According to our information 67 people were killed in total.
Q: The PYD claims that you take orders from the KDP. Is that true?
Juma: No, the KDP as a Kurdish political party supports us as well as other Syrian Kurdish parties. They support us as Kurds but they do not give us orders. It is political support,www.ekurd.net nothing else. But Salih Muslim and other PYD leaders are often in Erbil meeting with KDP leaders, and they have been very well received by officials here.
Q: The PYD claims that they have majority support in Syrian Kurdistan – what is your comment on that?
Juma: This is not true. They force people to fight for them. For instance they take 11 to 12-year-old boys and girls to fight for them. They force each family to send a girl or a boy to fight for them; they say it’s for Kurdistan.
Q: Are you ready to sit with the PYD and solve your problems through negotiation?
Juma: Yes, we want to have good relations with all Kurdish parties and for that the Erbil Agreement should be a pre-condition. We are ready to implement the Erbil agreement, but unfortunately the PYD isn’t ready to do the same.
Q: How is your relationship with Turkey?
Juma: We have no relationship with Turkey. We have only visited Turkey once. Myself, Abdulhakim Bashir and Nasha’at Zaza met with the last Turkish ambassador to Syria.
Q: How do you see Turkey’s role in Syrian Kurdistan?
Juma: Turkey is an important regional power and they have a role in the Kurdish question. When we met with them they told us they aren’t against Kurdish rights in Syria unless it harms the unity of Syria. I think Turkey has no other option than to accept Kurds having their rights in Syria and elsewhere. The PYD leader travels to Turkey often. We don’t know what goes on between them.
Q: But the PYD accuses Turkey of backing the jihadists and Islamists in Syria?
Juma: We have discussed this with Turkish officials. They deny such claims, saying it is not in their best interest.
Q: How can the Kurdish problem in Syria be solved?
Juma: We are committed to the decision of the higher Kurdish National Council (KNC) that Syria should become a federal state because Syria is more diverse than Iraq.
Q: Do you think the Syrian opposition will accept your demands?
Juma: No. We have talked with them about that many times, but they haven’t accepted our demands. Our unity depends on them accepting the demands.
Q: Omer Usi (Kurdish MP in Syria) paid a visit to Erbil and brought a message from Bashar al-Assad to the Kurdish leaders. According to the message, Assad is ready to give Kurds their rights. Is this correct?
Juma: I have heard this as well, that Bashar al-Assad is ready to negotiate with Kurds, but we cannot forget that the Assad family oppressed Kurds during their 43 years in power. I have been imprisoned for more than 28 months and was only released because of the Syrian revolution. How can he give Kurds their rights while he still arrests Kurds?
The Kurdish problem is political. If Assad is serious he should announce to the public on television that he wants to give Kurds their rights and that he has oppressed Kurds in the past. If he did that it would mean that he is serious.
Published by Ekurd.net in cooperation with Basnews
