WASHINGTON DC - Representatives of political parties from Kurdish-majority regions in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria as well as the diaspora met in Washington on Friday.
The meeting was organized by the United States office of the autonomous administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) with the goal of Kurds working collectively on strategic issues in the American capital.
“It is important that we Kurds are all together. The Kurdish people in Western Kurdistan [Rojava] should go to Damascus together and negotiate together, this is very important,” Sinam Mohamad, a Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) representative in Washington, told Rudaw.
“The support of our Kurds in Washington will have an impact, so we wanted to organize a broad dialogue,” she added.
Attendees at the meeting discussed the current situation in the region, particularly in Syria, and the need for Kurds to support each other and work together to influence Congress and decision-making centers in America, while leaving their political conflicts and disagreements at home.
“I believe these meetings are very important and such meetings and encounters need to increase,” said Arash Salih, representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) in Washington.
“However, two things are important here. First, it's a bit late. I mean we should have realized the necessity of these earlier, should have sensed that the situation was changing, that more inclusivity was needed between Kurdish forces… The second point is that there needs to be a strong will in Kurdistan behind this matter, a realistic will,” he noted.
The possibility of stronger Kurdish unity on the world stage was demonstrated by the recent meeting of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) president Masoud Barzani and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) General Mazloum Abdi.
Meetings like that are “good steps,” said Hikmet Bamarni, head of KDP office in America, but he also cautioned that Kurds must not expect too much from their international allies.
“We need to be realistic, America has its own interests. We say America is our friend, but America is its own friend. Everyone is for themselves,” he said.
