ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A coalition of Kurdish opposition parties is considering opening an office in Damascus as it hopes to gain some influence in the new Syria, a party official told Rudaw on Thursday.
“There is no longer any excuse for the ENKS not to have influence in Damascus,” said Ibrahim Biro, a member of the foreign relations office for the Kurdish National Council (ENKS).
With the fall of Bashar al-Assad, “parties, big groups, and new alliances will form. As a consequence, the council’s influence in Damascus is very necessary,” he added.
He said they are representing ENKS in Damascus, but the party leadership has yet to decide whether or not to open an office in the capital.
ENKS has yet to meet with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, but they have been in contact with people around him and have expressed that they are willing to negotiate, said Biro.
ENKS has been in constant rivalry with the ruling People's Democratic Party (PYD) in northeast Syria (Rojava). Talks to resolve their problems began a decade ago but have been stalled for years. Renewed efforts to resume the talks have been mediated by the United States and France, which both have troops on the ground in northeast Syria as part of the war against the Islamic State (ISIS).
The Syrian transitional government is holding discussions with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and ENKS to include the Kurdish fronts in a planned national Syrian dialogue conference, state media reported on Monday.
Kurds faced systemic discrimination 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.
