BEIRUT
(AP) -- Syria's Kurds on Thursday declared a de-facto federal region in
Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria, drawing sharp condemnation
from both the Damascus government and its opponents who decried the
unilateral move as unconstitutional and setting a dangerous precedent.
The
declaration further complicates the situation on the ground in Syria
even as peace talks press ahead in Geneva. The main Syrian Kurdish party
has been excluded from those talks - perhaps an indication of why the
Kurds chose this particular moment for their move.
In
Syria's civil war, Kurdish fighters have emerged as the most effective
fighting force against the Islamic State group and are backed militarily
by the United States. More recently, Russia has backed them
politically.
But despite Russia's insistence
that they should be part of the talks that started this week in Geneva,
they have not been invited because Turkey considers the group to be a
terrorist organization.
"Everybody
rhetorically appreciates the Kurds, they all acknowledge the Kurdish
fight against ISIS and that they are great warriors, but this is not
being reflected in the diplomatic spectrum," said Mutlu Civiroglu, a
Washington-based Kurdish affairs analyst, using an alternative acronym
for the Islamic State group.
Thursday's
announcement triggered fears that a Kurdish federal unit would lead to a
partition of the war-shattered country - a formula that may make sense
in principle after five years of devastating fighting but one that would
be messy and unpalatable to most parties.
Some
200 Kurdish officials, who met in the town of Rmeilan in Syria's
predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh, insisted they are not
partitioning Syria nor seeking secession - but rather making sure the
country remains one nation.
"A federal and
democratic Syria is a guarantee of coexistence and brotherly relations,"
said an online posting from the conference.
Nawaf
Khalil, an official with the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, said
participants at the Rmeilan meeting included Turkmen, Arabs, Christian
and Kurds.
They all approved a "democratic
federal system for Rojava-Northern Syria," he said. Rojava is a Kurdish
word that refers to three distinct enclaves, or cantons, under Kurdish
control in northern Syria: Jazira, Kobani and Afrin.
The
Kurds, a longtime oppressed minority under decades of Assad family
rule, have taken advantage of the chaos of the civil war to advance
their goals of autonomy. After overstretched government troops withdrew
from Kurdish areas to focus on fighting insurgents in other parts of the
country, they declared their own civil administration in those three
areas in 2013.
It was not immediately clear how the declaration of a federal region would change the situation on the ground.
"The
idea of a decentralized Syria is becoming every day more and more
common," said Civiroglu, the analyst. "I see that it can be a real
system for all of Syria in the future, something tried on the ground."
Syria's
Foreign Ministry rejected the move, describing it as "unconstitutional
and worthless" and warned against any attempt to encroach upon the
integrity of Syrian territory.
The Syrian
National Coalition, one of the main Syrian opposition groups, also said
it rejects such unilateral declarations and warned of any attempt to
form autonomous regions that "confiscate the will of the Syrian people."
The
idea of a federal region appears to have gained some traction lately as
world and regional powers grapple with ways to end the conflict.
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week said a federal system is one
possible option if the Syrian people agree to it. The United States has
also been an ardent supporter of the Kurds in Syria and in the wider
region but has not commented on Thursday's declaration. Turkey said
Wednesday that such unilateral moves carry no validity, but did not
comment Thursday.
The plan could make sense in
a country that has a multitude of sectarian and ethnic minorities for
whom it would be difficult to share a unifying national sentiment.
But Syria's war, with its changing front lines, has also created a geographical chaos.
The
government, dominated by President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect of
Shiite Islam, controls Damascus, the Alawite heartland along the
Mediterranean coast, and other cities and connecting corridors in
between. The Kurds run their own affairs in the northeast.
The
militants of the Islamic State group control much of the Sunni
heartland in the east. Other Sunni rebels control pockets in the north
and south. Members of the Muslim minority Druse, who make up about 5
percent of Syria's prewar population of 23 million, have also started
talking about autonomy in their southern areas.
But any move to carve up the country could risk yet more violence, including ethnic or sectarian cleansing.
Kurds
control an area along the Turkish border stretching from eastern Syria,
near the Iraqi border, to Afrin in the west, interrupted only by a
stretch of territory controlled by the Islamic State group.
"Only
a Kurdish federal region is definitively possible since the Kurds
control most of their territories in Kobani and the Hassakeh province,"
said Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a political analyst with Jamestown
Foundation specializing in Kurdish politics.
"The only problem they have is that they have not connected nor linked their administrations from Kobani up to Afrin," he added.
Meanwhile,
the U.N. envoy for Syria emerged from the fourth day of peace talks in
Geneva to tell reporters that significant gaps remain between the two
sides.
Staffan de Mistura said he'd host both
sides separately on Friday to accelerate the process. He said there were
"no discussions about federalism" - a reference to the Syrian Kurdish
declaration.
In other developments, 61 trucks
with aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the
United Nations began entering four areas besieged by government forces
and insurgents, said ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek.
The
U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said
on its Twitter account that aid is on the way to the rebel-held towns
of Madaya Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, and the
government-held villages of Foua and Kfarya in the northwestern Idlib
province.
A U.N. aid official, Jan Egeland,
said the world body has given the Syrian government its plan to deliver
humanitarian aid to 1.1 million Syrians by the end of April. But he said
Damascus still has not granted authorization for aid to six of 18
priority areas the U.N. hopes to reach.
From
Moscow, Vladimir Putin warned that despite the Russian drawdown in Syria
- a surprising move the Russian president announced this week to
bolster the Geneva talks - Russia can again build up its forces "in a
few hours" in the Mideast country if necessary.
Putin
said that Russia has kept some forces in Syria to support the Syrian
army's action against militant groups and would continue striking them.
The
statement underlined Russia's intention to maintain a strong military
presence in Syria to keep its gains after a five-and-a-half-month air
campaign that has helped turn the tide of war and allowed Assad's forces
to make significant advances.
