Pluralism Lost in Syria’s Uprising: How the Opposition Strayed from Its Inclusive Roots
by Joseph Daher
A balanced account of how the uprising in Syria lost its democratic and inclusive character. The author also addresses the disregard of representatives of the Syrian opposition for the demands of the country's Kurdish population:
"Syrian Kurds’ historical problems reappeared with the popular uprising. The Syrian Arab opposition rejected the demands of the Kurdish opposition, both from the Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the Democratic Union Party (known by its Kurdish acronym, PYD). In July 2011, Kurdish representatives at the Istanbul gathering—which would, a few months later, establish the SNC—walked out of the conference in protest after the refusal of their request to change the name of the country from the Syrian Arab Republic to the “Republic of Syria.”
Relations between the SNC and the KNC had been difficult from the beginning. The SNC’s first chairman, Burhan Ghalioun, refused the KNC’s main demand for federalism in a post-Assad Syria, calling it a “delusion.” Ghalioun also infuriated Syrian Kurds by comparing them to the “immigrants in France,” implying that they were not native to Syria—a longstanding way to denigrate their claims to rights in the country. Kurdish activists unsuccessfully attempted to resist the continual ignoring of Kurdish rights.
The KNC then joined the Coalition in 2013, hoping for improvements. But the SNC and the Coalition continued to act negatively toward Kurdish parties and interests. The KNC was later included in the HNC, but this did not prevent the continuation of the denial of Kurdish rights and of chauvinist comments from members of the Coalition. For example, in March 2016, the chairman of the opposition’s delegation to the HNC in Geneva, former general Asaad al-Zoubi, said on Radio Orient television that “the Kurds made up 1 percent of the population and they only wanted to get their papers during the era of President Hafez al-Assad to prove they are ‘human beings.’” In response to these comments, which many Kurds considered racist, demonstrations were organized in various Kurdish-majority cities. At the same time, the SNC and Coalition continued to adopt a very harsh attitude toward the PYD, which they considered an enemy of the revolution.
A new episode of confrontation happened in March 2017 during a further round of peace negotiations in Geneva, when representatives of the NCB and a few other members of the HNC refused to transfer a document written by the KNC to the UN special envoy, Steffan de Mistura. The document confirmed the representation of Kurds in the negotiation process and demanded an inclusion of the Kurdish question and of other sections of Syria’s population into the agenda of the negotiations. In reaction, the KNC suspended its participation in the negotiations and in the HNC’s meetings.
The FSA had no official position on the Kurdish question, but most of its leadership was hostile to Kurdish national rights and demands.
A Turkish military offensive, assisted by Syrian armed opposition forces, entered northern Syria in January 2018. Following the conquest and occupation of the city of Afrin, Syrian opposition fighters linked to Ankara plundered and looted civilian residences and shops, and tore down a statue of Kawa, a central and symbolic figure in a Kurdish legend about the new year celebration of Newroz. More than 130,000 people, almost all Kurdish, also fled their homes after the invasion of Afrin district. The occupation of the region of Afrin has continued and has been characterized by numerous violations of human rights. In the months following the invasion, tensions between Arabs and Kurds only increased.
The situation worsened in December 2018, when Syrian armed opposition groups announced their readiness to participate in a Turkish-led military operation against the regions controlled by the PYD east of the Euphrates river, after Ankara redoubled its threats against Kurdish forces. The Coalition also supported this offensive, despite the opposition of the Kurdish members and groups within it."