Rojava administration responds to exclusion from Riyadh talks

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. Continue reading “Rojava administration responds to exclusion from Riyadh talks”

Member of House of Lords urges UK government to visit Rojava

Lord-Hylton

Member of the House of Lords, Lord Hylton, has urged the British government to visit Rojava, the Kurdish regions of northern Syria, to witness the self-administration for itself during a debate in the house after last week’s Queen’s speech.

Having recently returned from his own visit to the region Lord Hylton expressed admiration for the authorities in Cizire, the eastern-most canton of three that make up the autonomous region of Rojava, saying that the Kurds, as the largest ethnic group, ‘might have seized power’ in 2011 when Assad’s forces fled but instead formed ‘common citizenship with the Assyrians, the Arabs, and other minorities’ to create a system of self-administration. A social contract has been adopted by the administration that ‘strongly proclaims equality for women’, he continued. Continue reading “Member of House of Lords urges UK government to visit Rojava”