Partiya Yekîtiya Democrat

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Partiya Yekîtiya Democrat
حزب الاتحاد الديمقراطي
Democratic Union Party
PYD logo.svg
Party leader Enwer Muslim
Aisha Hesso
founding 2003
Headquarters Qamishli
Alignment Democratic autonomy
Libertarian communalism
Libertarian socialism
Eco-socialism
Colours) green, red, yellow
Website www.pydrojava.net
Flag of the Partiya Yekitîya Democrat

The Partiya Yekîtiya Democrat ( PYD ; Arabic حزب الاتحاد الديمقراطي Ḥizb al-Ittiḥād ad-Dīmuqrāṭī ), German Party of the Democratic Union , is a Kurdish party in Syria and a member of the Syrian opposition group National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change . The party is considered a sister party of the PKK , from which it emerged. According to the statutes, the PYD is part of the PKK. The former chairmen Salih Muslim and Asya Abdullah , on the other hand, deny any relationship with the PKK, except for ideological proximity.

At the seventh party congress in September 2017, Şahoz Hasan and Ayşe Hiso, a new party leadership, were elected.

History, program

The party was founded in 2003 by decision of the PKK and has no legal organizational structure in Syria. Their ideology corresponds to democratic confederalism and thus to the PKK line. The main concern is to find a solution to the Kurdish question . According to the party program, their main demands include respect for human rights , equality between men and women , the release of political prisoners , freedom of expression and the abolition of the death penalty . In the areas governed by the PYD, all leadership positions in politics, as well as in administration, in the police or at universities, are held twice, each by a man and a woman. And in the local councils there is a gender quota of 40%. Quotas also apply to the political inclusion of ethnic groups and religious communities in municipal administrations.

After relations between Turkey and Syria improved, it initially shifted its focus from fighting Turkey to nationalist agitation among the Syrian Kurds. It paid a high price for this: in 2009, two thirds of all convictions for illegal party activity among Syrian Kurds were against members of the PYD; and three quarters of all Kurdish torture victims were PYD sympathizers. Her relationship with the other Syrian Kurdish parties remained tense: They accused her of continuing the earlier PKK policy with the Syrian secret services and intimidating and killing members of other groups. For its part, the PYD organized protests against Öcalan's imprisonment in Turkey rather than dealing with the interests of the Kurds in Syria. Nevertheless, it became the dominant party among the Kurds in the Afrin and Ain al-Arab areas .

In 2004, five PYD executives were murdered in northern Iraq, including board member Meysa Bakî (alias Şîlan Kobanî). The current party chairman Salih Muslim is also a member of the High Kurdish Committee , a commission for the self-administration of the Kurdish areas in Syria consisting of the Kurdish National Council and the PYD.

In Europe, the PYD organizes protests against human rights violations in Syria. In statements by the party, there is also talk of a European organization of the PYD.

Role in the Syrian civil war

In the course of the Arab Spring 2011 , demonstrations and unrest also broke out in Syria from March 2011, which culminated in the Syrian civil war . Most of the Kurdish areas were spared the fighting between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian armed forces . The PYD organized local councils, self-defense units and opened cultural and language schools there. Although there were occasional clashes between PYD and Baathist units, the cultural activities of the PYD were hardly hindered. Your opponents see this as evidence of covert cooperation between the PYD and Baathists, the PYD refers to the weakening of the Syrian state organs. To protect these areas, the PYD founded the People's Defense Units (YPG) on October 26, 2011 . After large parts of the Syrian military had withdrawn from the Kurdish regions in favor of a mobilization against the FSA in July 2012, the PYD was able to bring various Kurdish cities in northern Syria under its control with the help of the YPG. The PYD regards the YPG as the official military arm of the High Kurdish Committee . The founding of the High Kurdish Committee was preceded by growing tensions between the KNR and the PYD and the associated intention to find a common line. Then, representatives of Syrian Kurdish parties met in July 2012 under the auspices of Masud Barzani in northern Iraq Arbil . At the end of the meeting, the sides agreed not to act against each other and to found the High Kurdish Committee to determine the further strategy of the Kurdish organizations.

After a conference in Qamishli in mid-November 2013, the PYD, together with other groups, decided to set up an interim administration on November 12th in order to counter the maladministration and supply of the population caused by the war.

Relations with Turkey

Depending on the reading, Turkey is critical of a power presence of the Kurds or the PYD in northern Syria. It rejects Kurdish autonomy in Syria similar to the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in Iraq. Since the PYD has controlled large parts of the Kurdish areas since July 2012, Turkey increased its military presence in the Syrian-Turkish border area in autumn 2012 . The Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that it would not tolerate the presence of “terrorist groups”, be it the “PKK” or “ Al-Qaida ”, along its border. The PYD, on the other hand, accuses Turkey of allowing al-Qaeda- affiliated jihadist rebel groups such as the al-Nusra Front to infiltrate into Kurdish-Syrian areas across the Turkish border in order to destabilize the Kurdish areas in Syria.

In October 2012, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to bomb areas controlled by the PYD if the PYD were to leave these areas to the PKK for “terrorist activities”. At the beginning of December 2012, PYD party leader Salih Muslim reiterated his readiness for “good relations with Turkey”. The chairman of the National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Moas al-Khatib declared in March 2013 that Turkey and the PYD were ready to negotiate with one another and that he could mediate between them. In July 2013, Salih Muslim finally traveled to Turkey at the invitation of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, where he conducted direct negotiations with the Turkish authorities.

In connection with the battle for Kobanê , Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on October 19, 2014 that the PYD is a terrorist organization like the PKK .

On January 20, 2018, Turkey began a military offensive against the PYD-ruled canton of Afrin. On March 18, 2018, the Turkish Armed Forces together with their allied FSA captured Afrin .

Relations with the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan

On January 16, 2013, the Faysh Kabur border crossing between Rojava and the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan was opened by the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan.

In August 2015, the Kurdish television broadcaster Rudaw Media Network , which is affiliated with Barzani, urged the PYD to refrain from restricting press freedom after the canton of Cizîrê had withdrawn his license.

In an interview with Al-Monitor on March 22, 2016, Masud Barzani , the President of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in Northern Iraq, criticized the PYD for not really striving for democracy in his view, and with the PKK exactly one and to be the same organization, whereby arms deliveries from the USA to the PYD mean support for the PKK.

In June 2016, the border crossing between Kurdistan Autonomous Region and Rojava reopened after being closed for three months.

Human rights violations

In its strongholds, particularly in Afrin, the PYD is very likely to use violence against young opposition members who want to demonstrate against Bashar al-Assad . The PYD admitted violence against demonstrators in Afrin and justified this by showing a Turkish flag by Arab demonstrators. The Kurdish politician Maschaal Tammo is also said to have been murdered by PYD assassins in 2011 because he spoke out against the Assad regime. Although the PYD denies any connection to the murder, evidence suggests that Tammo had received several threatening letters from the PYD before his death. Human rights violations by the PYD were already reported at the beginning of the Syrian civil war. In 2013 it was reported that the PYD Asayish killed Kurdish opposition activists during a demonstration in Amude . The PYD defended itself by defending itself. She testified that its members were ambushed in which 1 Asayish died and 2 were wounded.

In June 2014, Human Rights Watch released its annual report that there are massive human rights violations by the PYD. Above all, disproportionate prison sentences, unfair trials and the use of child soldiers are mentioned. There were also allegations that the PYD kidnapped Kurdish children in order to train them in their ideology and to use them as fighters. A later investigation by Human Rigts Watch in July 2015 revealed that the YPG fined those responsible for the recruitment of minors and fired the minors or transferred them to non-combat units. Persecution of Kurdish political opponents is also reported. For example, the Kurdish politician Dersem Omar was placed under arrest in 2013. At the same time, Human Rights Watch found that the human rights violations committed by the PYD and its security units are far less extreme and widespread than those committed by the other conflicting parties.

In July 2015, a father set himself on fire in front of the PYD party office in Sulaimaniyya . The reason for this was the protest against the parent organization of the PYD, the Kurdistan Workers' Party , which illegally recruited the man's 15-year-old son as a guerrilla.

Amnesty International accused the PYD of systematically evicting the non-Kurdish population. Entire villages were torn down and thousands of people were displaced. A later investigation by the UN found no evidence of systematic evictions by the PYD against the non-Kurdish population.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anwar Muslim and Aisha head the Democratic Union Party (PYD). In: pydrojava.net. Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Frankfurter Hefte
  3. ^ Constitutional Report Baden-Württemberg 2014 , accessed on March 26, 2016 (PDF)
  4. ↑ Muriel Asseburg: The Syrian tragedy - from civil protest to civil war, in: Klaus Gallas (ed.): Orient im Umbruch. Hall 2014, page 101
  5. ^ Ferhad Ibrahim Seyder: The Syrian Kurds: Ways out of the civil war, Münster 2017, page 67
  6. ↑ a b Reuters interview with Salih Muslim . Reuters news agency; Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  7. ↑ Luke Mogelson: Dark Victory in Raqqa . In: The New Yorker . October 30, 2017, ISSN  0028-792X ( newyorker.com [accessed January 28, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Petra Ramsauer, Rakka: Visibility in the Utopia of the Syrian Kurds | NZZ on Sunday . In: NZZ am Sonntag . ( nzz.ch [accessed on January 28, 2018]).
  9. ↑ a b c Aron Lund: Divided They Stand. An Overview of Syria's Political Opposition Factions, Olof Palme International Center, Uppsala 2012, pp. 72–74, PDF ( Memento from September 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)
  10. ^ Milliyet of December 2, 2004
  11. ^ Kurds declare an interim administration in Syria . reuters.com, November 12, 2013
  12. ↑ a b A war within a war . FAZ ; Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  13. ↑ Turkey warned Iraqi Kurds that autonomy would not be applied in Syria: PM . In: Hürriyet Daily News . Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  14. ^ Turkey won't allow 'terrorist' groups at Syria border . Chicago Tribune; Retrieved November 20, 2012.
  15. ↑ a b "There was no Kurdish deal with the regime" . Frankfurter Rundschau ; Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  16. ^ Turkey Growing Frustrated by Syria Events , accessed November 20, 2012.
  17. ↑ Sakalımıza değil akan kana bakın . In: Milliyet . Retrieved March 10, 2013
  18. ^ PYD's Muslim: Ankara agreed to conditional autonomy .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Today's Zaman. Retrieved July 28, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.todayszaman.com  
  19. ↑ No end in sight to the battle for Kobane . ORF; Retrieved October 19, 2014
  20. ↑ Petra Ramsauer, Rakka: Visibility in the Utopia of the Syrian Kurds | NZZ on Sunday . In: NZZ am Sonntag . ( nzz.ch [accessed on January 28, 2018]).
  21. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Turkish army conquers Kurdish town of Afrin | DW | 03/18/2018. Retrieved July 20, 2018 .
  22. ↑ a b KRG-Rojava border re-opened . In: Rudaw . ( rudaw.net [accessed July 20, 2018]).
  23. ↑ Rudaw blasts PYD ban in Rojava as like 'North Korea' In: Rudaw.net , August 4, 2015, accessed on March 26, 2016
  24. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130902214948/http://www.palmecenter.se/Documents/Kunskapsbanken/Rapporter/Syrian%20opposition%20paper%20-%20PALME%20FINAL.pdf
  25. ↑ Kurd militia kills 3 protesters in Syria town In: Al-Ahram , June 28, 2013 (English), accessed on March 26, 2016
  26. ^ A b Kurdish PYD militia kills 3 protesters in Syrian Kurdistan In: Ekurd.net Daily News , June 28, 2013, accessed on March 26, 2016
  27. ^ Syria: Abuses in Kurdish-run Enclaves Arbitrary Arrests, Unfair Trials; Use of Child Soldiers In: HRW.org , June 18, 2014, accessed March 26, 2016
  28. ↑ Andrea Glioti: Syrian Kurdish NGOs Prevent Recruitment of Youth Soldiers ( Memento of the original from February 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Al-Monitor, June 6, 2013, accessed on March 26, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.al-monitor.com
  29. ↑ Syria: Human rights violations in Kurdish enclaves - Arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, use of child soldiers In: HRW.org , June 19, 2014, accessed on March 26, 2016
  30. ↑ Syria: Kurdish Forces Violating Child Soldier Ban . In: Human Rights Watch . July 15, 2015 ( hrw.org [accessed March 5, 2018]).
  31. ↑ Barzan Sheikhmous: What is Behind the PYD's Attack on Barzani's Party? In: WashingtonInstitute.org , May 1, 2014, accessed March 26, 2016
  32. ↑ Human Rights Watch: Under Kurdish Rule - Abuses in PYD-Run Enclaves of Syria , Annual Report June 19, 2014, accessed June 18, 2016
  33. ↑ Syrian Kurd self-immolates after son recruited by PKK In: Rudaw.net , July 1, 2015 (English), accessed on March 26, 2016
  34. ^ Dpa / dol: War crimes: Amnesty accuses Kurds of being expelled from Syria. In: welt.de . October 13, 2015, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  35. ↑ UN report counters Amnesty International's claim that Kurds are ethnically cleansing in Syria . In: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز . March 15, 2017 ( almasdarnews.com [accessed February 20, 2018]).
  36. ↑ UN says no ethnic cleansing by Kurds in northern Syria - Kurdish Institute. Retrieved February 20, 2018 (American English).