History Of Syrian Kurds And Their Political Parties
History Of Syrian Kurds And Their Political Parties

Author(s): Jordi Tejel
Subject(s): Ethnohistory, Political history, Electoral systems, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: History; Syrian; Kurds; Political Parties;
Summary/Abstract: As the Syrian army pulled out of several towns in the north and northeast of the country in July 2012, Kurds found themselves masters of their own destiny after more than 40 years of dictatorship and political marginalisation.In the face of the sudden retreat of the state security apparatus, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the Kurdish National Council, composed of sixteen political parties, signed a political agreement providing for the creation of a joint Supreme Kurdish Council and the establishment of‘popular defence forces’ in order to secure Kurdish gains. However, despite the apparent unity, the operational capacity of the Supreme Kurdish Council was hindered by an unbalanced power relationship between the PYD and the Kurdish National Council, in favour of the former, as well as their uneven representation in the three main Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria (Allsopp2014: 194–200).

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