pluralism – Peace in Kurdistan

The Democratic Union Party (PYD), one of the leading parties in Rojava, has responded to criticisms about the party that were laid out in a recent Government report. The report was written as a response to a Foreign Affairs Select Committee document, entitled UK Government Policy on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which was the result of an inquiry into theUK’s relationship with the KRG, including investment, foreign policy implications, and diplomatic relations.

The government’s response to that enquiry included a section on Syrian Kurdistan and the PYD, which it accused of maintaining links with the Assad government and refusing to work with the official Syrian opposition. It also suggested the party should make a greater commitment to pluralism and human rights, in total ignorance of the pluralism being engendered in Rojava’s political sphere which is no small part due to the PYD’s policies. It is worth giving the report a read.

The PYD’s co-chair Salih Muslim, recently submitted a response to the UK government’s accusations, which we reproduce below. Continue reading “PYD responds to government criticisms of the party in recent report” →

PYD RELATIONS

23 May 2014

The Kurdish initiative towards democratic change on the basis of unity and diversity

The Syrian crisis deepened amid blind violence exceeding all limits, in a way pushing the country towards the unknown in the absence of any objective and serious solutions. It is essentially beyond being just a crisis of the regime or the rule or authority, and has moved towards being a comprehensive structural crisis that stems from the unilateral nationalist approach based on the concept of the nation state, which contains within it the seeds of denial and domination and chauvinism which has ruled Syria for almost half a century. This is inconsistent with the fundamental attributes of our era that is known as the era of the democratic peoples.

Despite the diversity and multiplicity of components of the origins of this society – Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and others – and the multiplicity of religions, sects and languages, since its independence the Syrian modern state brought with it the seeds of authoritarianism as a product of its nationalism and chauvinism that prevented the democratic transformation, and the reduced the number of recognised ethnic identities and political affiliations as per. the identity of the authoritarian rulers, and the problem of the real recognition of citizens’ identity emerged. That was followed by periods of darkness of denial of others under the slogans of chauvinism and banners of fanatical and exclusive nationalism, which caused paralysis in the driving forces developing the Syrian society and stifled development. This reflected authoritarianism, and strangled the country in a security State that marginalized citizens and grabbed his free will to represent his true identity, which turned Syria to a big prison for forcibly melting components without any attention or respect for the fact of Syria’s authentic pluralism.

Continue reading “PYD Europe: “The Kurdish initiative towards democratic change on the basis of unity and diversity”” →