ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), on Sunday responded to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa's statement about Kurds in Syria and expressed hope of correcting the wrong treatment of the Kurds.
"We welcome this vision for the Kurds and the future of Syria, and we hope that this will be the beginning of correcting the course of history and correcting the wrong treatment of the Kurdish people in Syria,” Barzani said in a statement, responding to HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.
In a message to the Kurds, the HTS leader sought to ease their fears, saying they are “part of the homeland” and “there will be no injustice” against them.
“The coming Syria will have the Kurds as an essential component, and we will live together in it, and everyone will take their rights,” he said.
Barzani stressed that “all components of Syria must seize this opportunity to participate together in building a stable, free, and democratic Syria.”
Syria’s civil war dramatically reignited late last month when a coalition of rebels led by the HTS launched a blistering offensive against the Syrian army, ending over five decades of Baathist rule.
The former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, HTS is the prominent force among dozens of rebel factions. The group has long controlled a rebel enclave in the northwestern province of Idlib. It was designated a terrorist organization by the US in 2018 and the European Union in 2020.
When asked about the refugees from Afrin, the HTS chief said that they are working on returning them.
When the HTS took over Aleppo city, they allowed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to maintain control of the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiya.
SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdi announced on Thursday that they have reached agreements with the new authority in Damascus, adding that they are working on sending a delegation to the capital.
Kurds were systematically discriminated against under the former Syrian regime. During the civil war, they carved out an autonomous area in the north where they sought to promote diversity and tolerance. That area is, however, again under threat from Turkey, the main supporter of the Syrian rebels that toppled Assad. Ankara is opposed to the Kurdish-led SDF and accuses it of affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) decided on Thursday to raise the new flag of the country, previously used by the opposition, across its institutions.
The flag, featuring three red stars and the colors green, white, and black, has been used by various opposition groups fighting against Assad’s oppressive regime.
Referring to it as “the flag of independence,” Abdi said the flag is "suitable" for them "because this is not the flag of the Syrian Arab Republic but the flag of the Syrian Republic, which represents all components.”
