Kurds held captive by PYD

Syrian Kurds are now in a position of almost longing for the days of Assad's rule in the face of atrocities perpetrated by the PYD



The Syrian offshoot of the outlawed PKK, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) is pursuing the formation of an autonomous state, sugarcoating its struggle to take over Daish-occupied land in Syria by telling the West that the group represents secularists in the region, masterfully deluding the U.S. and some EU countries and gaining weaponry from their disillusioned U.S. ally.

The PKK, which now rules the U.S.-backed PYD, has been engaged in terrorism in Turkey for 40 years. While Turkey has maintained its close alliance with the U.S., the PKK has amassed a death toll reaching the hundreds of thousands, including civilians and security officers, which points to a contradiction in U.S. foreign policy and an open violation of international law and blatant disregard for political ethics.

Nevertheless, countries that support the PYD insist on continuing to do so despite the obvious problems such an alliance causes, justifying that decision by exemplifying the PYD's structural characteristics as an "organization."

The leading excuse they give is the argument that the PYD is a "movement" that practices the right of self-determination in Syria, which is in the restructuring phase. According to PYD supporters, the group is a "constituent organization" that represents Kurds, who were deprived of their basic fundamental rights including granting of citizenship and the right to own property under the Assad regime.

However, the reality is quite different. The PYD held a de facto, strategic partnership with Daish on the ground, hitting the same targets as Daish under the Assad regime. The PYD has done nothing for the democratic rights of Kurds so far and its links to Daish prove that the majority of administrative leaders of the organization are not Kurdish.

Nearly all Kurdish groups within Syria - particularly the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) - oppose the PYD, refusing to differentiate between the PYD, Daish and the Assad regime all of which have either ignored or murdered them.

Having killed Kurdish activists such as Mashaal Tammo, the PYD is sticking with their game plan nowadays. ENKS leader İbrahim Biro, who was arrested by the PYD and then subjected to forced migration, now finds himself labelled as a fugitive in his own country, where he fought for the freedom of Kurds for years.

Al-Qamishli, a facilitiy that was seized by the PYD, functions like an open-air prison for Kurdish opponents whom they assault, sometimes arresting their family members as well who have been on hunger strike for days before throwing them into al-Qamishli dungeons.

So, Syrian Kurds are now in a position of almost longing for the days of Assad's rule in the face of the atrocity of the PYD.

The situation would have become even graver if it were not for the political and military crackdown of Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani and the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The U.S. and the EU, who support the PYD by treating it as a legal and legitimate organization and justifying their approach to Kurdish rights, should pay attention to the objections of the Kurds because what they are supporting is not a Kurdish state but a PKK state founded on one simple, six-letter word: Terror.