A powerful Syrian Kurdish political party is planning to declare a federal region in northern Syria, a model it hopes can be applied to the entire country, a spokesman for the faction said Wednesday.
Nawaf Khalil of the Democratic Union Party says his party is not lobbying for an only-Kurdish region but an all-inclusive area that would include representation for Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds in northern Syria.
The declaration is expected to be made at the end of a Kurdish conference that is being held on Wednesday in the town of Rmeilan in the country's northern Hassakeh province.
It comes as the Damascus government and Saudi-backed rebels are holding peace talks with a UN envoy in Geneva on ways to resolve the country's devastating civil war, which this week entered its sixth year.
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up more than 10 per cent of the country's prewar population of 23 million.
A federal region could be a first step toward creating an autonomous region similar to the one Kurds run across the border in Iraq, where their territory is virtually a separate country.
However, both the Syrian government and the opposition reject any form of partitioning of the country.
"As a Syrian citizen, I say we reject talks about a federal Syria ... our people will reject any attempt to divide Syria," Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said at a weekend press conference in Damascus.
The minister's remarks came a day after the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the possibility of federalism for Syria has not been taken off the table for the peace talks in Geneva.
The Kurdish move comes at a critical juncture in the conflict.
Russia on Tuesday began withdrawing the bulk of its troops from Syria, signalling an end to Moscow's five-and-a-half month air campaign.
Russia's defence ministry said another group of its aircraft left the Russian air base in Syria on Wednesday and is returning home.
Share
