By Abdullah Al Ghadawi; Translation by Yusra Ahmed
(Zaman Al Wasl) Interview - Abdul-Baset Sieda, the prominent Syrian Opposition figure, expressed his disappointment for the developments in the border town Kobani, and the division between the Kurds and Arab, however, he preferred to describe the situation as “tension”.
In his talk to Zaman al-Wasl, he gave many reasons for the tension between Arabs and Kurds over Kobani’s battle: one of them the Syrian opposition's and the National Coalition's under-expectation performance and support for Kobani. He referred reasons for that attitude to the sensitive circumstances of Kobani, as it and the surrounding villages are of Kurdish majority, where people were forced to leave their homes, to be robbed by the Islamic State and others. All that left scars and pain inside Kurdish people.
The other reason Sieda gave for the cold reaction of Syrian opposition toward Kobani was that Democratic Union Party “PYD” has been leading the battle, which is suspected to be connected to the Syrian regime, that forced some members of the National Coalition to be cautious in dealing with it, that caution was used by many nationalists to lead a propaganda against the Coalition and Syrian opposition.
The last reason Sieda mentioned was the media interest in Kobani’s battle, ignoring what had been happening in other Syrian cities like Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Idlib and other regions, which gave an impression that the Syrian crises had been short-hand to a battle with ISIS around Kobani.
However, the severest tension happened when the Islamic State attacked Shikal and its crimes against Yezidis, besides heading toward Erbil. Some incidence showed some support to ISIS among some Sunni people for many reason, most important the feeling of discrimination, marginalizing and ignorance they felt” added.
He explained that regime used the situation for its own benefits, while PYD used it to introduce itself as the only representative for Kurds.
The opposition's figure did not agree to hold Kurds responsibility for the tensed relation with Arabs, as many thought that Kurds accepted to play the spearhead for the US-led coalition. He explained that Kurds did not attack anyone especially in Iraq, while ISIS attacked them, killed and abducted their men and women, slaved their women, and robbed all their belongings, all which created a feeling of pain, cannot be healed easily.
“In the same time there was sympathy and justification of ISIS’s actions by many Sunnis either in Syria or Iraq, therefore an urgent need to highlight the fact that ISIS is different from the Arabic Sunni social component and to concentrate on the historical good relations between Arab and Kurds” Sieda confirmed that in his visit to Erbil, he with Kurdish officials discussed ISIS’s attack on the region and Kurdistan territory
He added that they agreed on prioritizing stopping ISIS’s attacks on the territory and liberating areas it occupied. “in the same time there was concentration on the need to take the regional balance and advantages in account especially relations with Iran and Turkey.
Sieda revealed that some responsible in Kurdistan blamed some Arab countries those adopted the battle against terrorism for not condemning attacks on Kurdistan territory or communication with them, because they believed that terrorism was an international phenomena especially within the recent technology and communication
“We put forward a future plans to tackle the problems between Arabs and Kurds consisted of 3 main suggestions: the first suggested communication with Arab Countries interested in fighting terrorism to put them in the real situation and coordinate with them for the following steps.
The second suggestion was to communicate with religious figures especially Arab and Kurd, to explain the wrongfulness of Sharea background ISIS used to justify its actions. Besides working hard to minimize congestion among people and raise awareness to the reality.
The last suggestion according to Sieda was to work together with educated people, artists, journalists, writers and poets to distribute the idea of separating the Kurd-Arab relation from any tension and to work hard to reduce the tensed media articles and reports those increase the congestion. “Moreover, we need a rational dialogue to find a mechanism to sort out the conflict and disagreements happen from time to time”.
The Coalition’s member supported the Free Syrian Army “FSA” in its help in Kobani’s battle; despite he felt it a bit late. “In the end Kobani is a Syrian town and Kurds are part of Syrian people and many Kurds have been fighting with the FSA”.
In the end, Sieda regretted the fact that opposition is divided. He confessed that National Coalition needs to start initiation and actions, and play the leadership required from it. “The national coalition needs to stop its recent job of fixing disagreements among its members.
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