(Zaman Al Wasl)- It is regrettable that the Syrian people rose up and paid a heavy price for their revolution for others to reap the fruits of their sacrifices without effort. In return for a few limited gains, certain groups in Syria are expected to help the tyrannical regime remain in place. The Autonomous Administration is one such group which trades the Syrian people’s sacrifices to maintain its administration over a part of Syria.
These groups' projects are not contingent on overthrowing the al-Assad regime to establish their independent entities, and they are satisfied with control over a specific geographical part of Syrian territory. These ambitions are dependent on the groups reaching a reconciliation with the al-Assad government, gaining the regime’s approval or moving towards secession, especially given the direct Russian-American presence in Syria.
Hediye Yousef, the co-chair of the Executive Committee of the Northern Syrian Federation, said that the local administration elections in the areas under Autonomous Administration control would present an answer about the last few years of the Syrian revolution. It might also act as a launch point to resolve the Syrian crisis and bring a democratic solution for all the peoples of Syria. Yousef indicated that the elections coincide with several attempts at an international level to find a solution in Syria.
The Kurdish leadership's statement, quoted by Hawar News Agency, the official outlet for the Kurdish Administration, shows that the Democratic Union Party (PYD) which is involved in the conflict in al-Jazira region resembles the authoritarian al-Assad regime in its dealings with the Syrian people.
The PYD wants to present its project as part of the Syrian revolution or as one of revolution’s results. The Administration organized municipal elections earlier this month as the second step out of three steps aimed at establishing of regional federal committees and institutions. The municipal elections were preceded by village council and neighborhood elections on September 22, 2017. The municipal elections will be followed by a move to establish a Council of People and a Popular Conference in early 2018.
Some of the Arab villages did not participate in these elections due to the absence of electoral boxes in the villages. However, a large percentage of the people in Arab villages (69% according to the PYD’s announcement) participated in the election for fear they would be deprived of diesel fuel which the Kurdish administration monopolized since the beginning of 2017. The results emerged with the PYD, referred to as “the democratic umma”, winning 93.6% of the seats in the town and district councils in al-Hasakah, about 90% of the seats in al-Raqqa and northern Aleppo.
The result is considered normal because the Kurdish Autonomous Administration used its councils in the villages and towns to subdue the local population. The Autonomous Administration’s councils are exclusively responsible, monopolize, service provision in the areas under its control especially education and food.
The Administration control the production and distribution of bread which is scarce due to the war. Most of the employees in Hasakah countryside are teachers who receive their salaries from the Autonomous Administration, and so they were tasked to carry out the entire electoral process. These circumstances force the majority of people living under Autonomous Administration control to obey the Administration and its suggestions even if they hate the Administration.
Diesel fuel was a key incentive to vote in the elections. The product is especially important as winter has started. By connecting a person’s ability to access diesel to their participation in the three stages of the elections, the Autonomous Administration implemented the Russian scientist Pavlov’s famous theory.
The Kurdish Administrative Council began distributing diesel fuel at a rate of 200 liters per family booklet (official document registering family members) which amounts to 8500 Syrian Pounds last month. Observers commented that this served as an election campaign whereby candidates did not need to campaign themselves. Electoral candidates were organized according to party lists with the exception of a few dozen Arab candidates, a minority when compared with the hundreds of candidates in the Kurdish Party lists. The Party lists included independent Arab candidates to ensure these candidates’ families’ and tribes’ would vote for the whole list.
In any case, the Arab society in al-Jazira region is not organized by parties, trade unions or real or fake associations unlike the Syriac and Kurdish societies. The Arab society in the region is fertile ground for organizations, parties and movements to develop given the lack of solid blocs in the society to protect it from dispersion or submission to the dominant powers at the time. These issues emerged whether during the al-Assad regime rule, the Islamic state’s rule and now during the PYD’s rule.
The Autonomous Administration’s moves to attract the inhabitants of the Arab regions in al-Hasakah and al-Raqqah and raising slogans of democracy and the “brotherhood of the peoples” came after a period of intimidation during which much violence was exacted on Arab villages which opposed the presence of the Kurdish administration forces in the villages.
The military and security wings of the Autonomous Administration had previously subdued the people of the southern areas of Qamishli, al-Hasakah, Ras al-Ayn and northern al-Raqqah by killing all those who resisted, regardless of the factions. The forces arrested those rejecting their presence and destroyed villages that witnessed battles and where the PYD forces killed fighters opposing their presence. As a result of the severity of the punishments previously exacted, the local population fear speaking before any Kurd for fear of s/he is a PYD support or a member of the PYD’s security, military or intelligence branches.
Here, the Kurdish administration seems to follow in the footsteps of authoritarian, totalitarian regimes in their methods of forcing people into submission and rejecting others’ opinions, through extreme cruelty and the use of violence to generate fear of murder, imprisonment or loss of livelihood and well-being. Their actions have made the possibility of a revolution or rebellion against them unlikely as people try to placate the ruling powers to gain small benefits in the face of brutal punishment.
This stage of attracting and bringing the population into the fold was preceded by a stage of making the population accept to pay taxes, tithes and the fees for issuing building, driving and other licenses. The Autonomous Administration achieved this by occupying official directorates and state institutions such as schools, hospitals and bakeries. The move to managing administrative affairs followed the PYD and its allies announcing in 2014 the establishment of the Autonomous Administration in the al-Jazira area in north of al-Hasakah province, in Kobani/Ayn al-Arab and Afrin in Aleppo.
Zaman A Wasl
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