Kurdish National Council

Kurdish National Council Encûmena Niştimanî ya Kurdî li Sûriyê
Arabic name	المجلس الوطني الكوردي
Leader	Ibrahim Biro
Founded	26 October 2011 ( ago)
Headquarters	Al-Qamishli Erbil
Paramilitary wing	Rojava Peshmerga
Ideology	Kurdish nationalism pro-decentralization of Syria Anti-Iranian
Political position	Centre
National affiliation	Kurdish Supreme Committee National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces
International affiliation	Kurdistan Democratic Party
People's Council	0 / 250
Democratic Council	2 / 43
Party flag
Politics of Syria Political parties Elections

The Kurdish National Council (KNC, Kurdish: Encûmena Niştimanî ya Kurdî li Sûriyê‎, ENKS; Arabic: المجلس الوطني الكوردي‎‎ Al-Majlis Al-Watani Al-Kurdi) in Syria is a Kurdish political organization involved in the Syrian Civil War. Among ethnic Kurdish population in northern Syria, it is the major political competitor of the Democratic Union Party (PYD). While the KNC has more international support than the PYD and a strong supporter basis among some Syrian Kurdish refugees, it lacks the popular support that the PYD enjoys in Syrian Kurdistan.

History

The Kurdish National Council was founded in Hawler on 26 October 2011, under the sponsorship of Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, following the earlier creation of the Syrian National Council. The organisation was originally composed of 11 Syrian Kurdish parties, however by May 2012 this had grown to 15.

Several KNC parties have also on occasion come into conflict with another Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). In order to reduce tensions, Massoud Barzani mediated between the two groups in July 2012 at a diplomatic meeting in Hawler. As a result, the PYD joined with the Kurdish National Council to form the Kurdish Supreme Committee along with a popular defence force to defend Syrian Kurdistan. The agreement became obsolete when the PYD abandoned the coalition with pro-federal Kurdish parties for the aim of creating a polyethnic and progressive society and polity in the Rojava region, creating the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM).

2016

On 13 August 2016, Wedat Hussein Ali, reporter of the pro-PKK news agency Roj TV was killed by unknown gunmen in Dohuk, a KDP stronghold. Roj TV subsequently blamed the KDP for the assassination. Later that same day, the pro-PYD Asayish arrested Ibrahim Biro, leader of the KNC and the Kurdish Union (Yekîtî) Party, in Al-Qamishli and took him to an unknown location. ARA News alluded that the two incidents might be linked to the rivalry between the PKK and KDP, which support the PYD and KNC, respectively. After Biro's detention, dozens who belonged to Yekîtî Party, organized a sit-in in front of the city's PYD office to condemn the arrest, while PYD supporters took the South Kurdistan flag, symbol of both KNC as well as KDP, from the Yekîtî Party's office in southern Al-Qamishli. Biro was released the next day, claiming that he had been detained for the KNC's "political activities" and claimed that the PYD would fail, because "it is impossible for the people of Syria to accept another dictatorship." He subsequently sook asylum in Dohuk with the KDP, though he said he would return to Rojava.

According to SOHR, the Asayish arrested further Yekîtî Party and KDPS members in Amuda and the Afrin Canton on 16 August, most prominently Yekîtî politician Anwar Naso. The arrests prompted further sit-ins and protests by KNC supporters. Most of the arrested KNC members, among them Anwar Naso, were released a few hours later.

After the outbreak of the Battle of al-Hasakah between pro-government and pro-PYD forces on the same day of August 2016, the KNC condemned the Syrian government for their attacks on civilians and urged both sides to stop fighting. At the same time, however, KNC politicians also said that the PYD should allow the Rojava Peshmerga into the city to protect the Kurdish population and that, at best, the government should be driven from Rojava.

On 19 September, the Syrian Yazidi Council left both the KNC as well as the Syrian National Council after months of tension over the "failure to acknowledge the SNC's Arabism and Islamism problems" and the lack of representation for Yazidis within the Syrian opposition.

Ideology

Although the KNC has joined the Syrian National Coalition, there are key differences between the KNC and the SNC over their approach to the issue of decentralization, with the KNC pressing for Kurdish autonomy, whereas the SNC has rejected anything more than administrative decentralization. The issue of federalism and autonomy is also a point of contention for KNC and PYD, even though both parties have very similar aims. As such, the KNC condemned the PYD's declaration of a federation in northern Syria as an attempt to break up Syria without previous "debate and democratic participation". The KNC further stated that "it strictly opposes any attempt to impose federalism on the Syrian people without a preceding discussion". These statements have raised confusion among observers, with Carl Drott, a sociology researcher at the University of Oxford, commenting that "It is hard to know what the KNC actually wants. There is a fundamental contradiction between the Kurdish nationalist ideology of the KNC and the political project of its Syrian allies. Sometimes it seems that the only consistent policy of the KNC is to oppose anything that the PYD does." It should be noted, however, that Syrian Kurdish refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan, who mostly support the KNC, are also critical of the federalism declaration. Many of them fear that further tensions in Syria would arise as result of the declaration, while they simply wish for an end of hostilities. Despite these divisions about how to implement Kurdish autonomy, the KNC still generally supports federalism. This was shown when Syrian opposition leader Michel Kilo outright condemned any attempt of Kurds to establish federalism in Syria, negatively comparing them to Israel. The KNC reacted to the statement by supporting the PYD in accusing Kilo of racism and acting to please Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey. Nevertheless, the KNC also argued that the Kurds still had friends among the Syrian National Coalition, thereby reiterating their general support for the Syrian opposition.

Paramilitary wing - Rojava Peshmerga

Partially in response to the military power of the PYD, the KNC formed its own paramilitary wing, the Rojava Peshmerga. They were mostly recruited from Syrian Army deserters and Syrian Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq. Trained by Iraqi Peshmerga and Zeravani under Major General Bahjat Taymas, the milita has a claimed strength of 3,000 fighters by June 2016. Their primary purpose is to defend Kurdish areas, and to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Due to the tensions between PYD and KNC, the Rojava Peshmerga have so far seen little action in Syria. In course of the Siege of Kobanî, the KNC offered to send 200 fighters to support the city's defenses, but was rejected by the PYD as the latter wanted all Kurdish units to fight as part of the YPG and YPJ. The YPG even hindered the KNC's Peshmerga who had been trained in Iraqi Kurdistan from entering Rojava at all. Since the formation of the Syrian Democratic Forces, YPG officials have declared, however, that KNC fighters are generally welcome to join the alliance. Despite discussions about possibly joining, the KNC has so far rejected military cooperation with pro-PYD forces. Ibrahim Biro stated as reasons for this that "they [the SDF] have a good relation with the Syrian regime, that’s why we cannot join them." Despite their tensions with the PYD, however, the KNC has also rejected inquires of Syrian opposition groups to send the Rojava Peshmerga to Azaz to defend the city against both ISIL as well as YPG during the Northern Aleppo offensive. Bahjat Taymas declared that the Rojava Peshmerga "don’t want to fight Kurds, only ISIS."

Currently, the Rojava Peshmerga are mostly fighting ISIL in Iraq.

List of constituent parties

Name	Leader
Kurdish Democratic Equality Party in Syria	Ni'mat Dawud
Kurdish Democratic Patriotic Party in Syria	Tahir Sa'dun Sifuk
Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria (el-Partî)	chair: vacant
Kurdish Reform Movement	Feysel Yusuf
Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syria (Democratic Yekîtî)	Kamiran Haj Abdu
Kurdish Democratic Left Party in Syria	Shalal Gado
Kurdistan Left Party - Syria	Mahmud Mala
Kurdish Union Party in Syria (Yekîtî)	Ibrahim Biro
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria	Si'ud Mala
The Kurdish Future Movement in Syria	Siamend Hajo
The Kurdish Future Movement in Syria	Narin Matini
Syrian Yazidi Council (left in 2016)

See also

• Rojava
• Rojava conflict