We received this statement from the Coordinating body of the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava about this week’s talks in Riyadh which convened the ‘Syrian opposition’ – but excluded Kurdish representation of the PYD, TEV-DEM or the coalition of Syrian Democratic Forces:
Public Statement Regarding the Riyadh Conference
After nearly five years of suffering, hundred thousands of victims and rivers of blood in Syria, a Syrian opposition conference is held in Riyadh between 8th and 10th of December, 2015. Countries participants in the Vienna conference wanted to take the initiative and reunite the dispersed Syrian opposition in a balanced delegation to negotiate directly with the Syrian regime to put an end to this bloody war and to reach a peaceful solution to the Syrian dilemma. It was supposed that there will be interference in neither the work of the Preparatory Committee nor the host country and that the various opposition blocs invited are free to choose their delegations after the number of participants has been identified.
However, what happened was that interference by outside powers imposed policies commensurate with their own agendas, prevented other key actors on the ground to participate in the conference and interfered in the internal affairs of other entities – not to mention the internal schism and conflict between those artificial entities whenever an important decision is to be made. Consequently, the Riyadh Conference is taking place without a real representation of all components of the Syrian people regardless of their religious, ethnic and political backgrounds. The outcome of this conference will not represent the hopes and aspirations of the Syrian people, who have been suffering from all those tragedies and horrors in their revolution against tyranny and dictatorship. Convening a conference in this style and manner will only be considered as a conspiracy against the will of the Syrian people and will not serve the political solution to the Syrian crisis. It will eventually become an umbrella for some dark forces and various terrorists groups to pass some regional policies.
For the above-mentioned reasons, representatives of the Democratic Self-administration in Rojava and its political and military forces, which are an essential part of the Syrian equation, have not been invited to attend the conference. Parties, participants in the Administration, were the forefront of the Syrian revolution when it was peaceful, were bombed by the Syrian regime when they liberated their areas; and defeated terrorism in a way that admired by the entire free world, who felt that these armed forces are defending democratic and noble human values and the brotherhood of nations.
We, in the Democratic Self-administration in Rojava, thank the host country for its efforts, but consider the outcome of this conference, similar to previous conferences, to be unfair and unjust, because the conference is not representative of all components of the Syrian society and delegates were chosen by regional powers, who try to implement their own agendas and policies against the will of the Syrians. These powers fear the entrenchment of democracy and the brotherhood of nations in a stable, prosperous and harmonious Syria. Accordingly, we in the Democratic Self-administration in Rojava, with all its institutions, are neither concerned nor affected by the outcomes of the Riyadh Conference and nobody whosoever can impose any decision, which we were not part of its making, on us.
The Coordinating Body of the Democratic Self-administration Cantons (Al Jazira, Kobani and Efrin) in Rojava
06/10/2015