The Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS) between east and west of the Euphrates

Local and Western media reported on the intention of the US-led Global Coalition to complete the intra-Kurdish dialogue rounds. Since the beginning of 2021, these reports have been accompanied by intensive campaigns by the Turkish state to float the Kurdish segments within the Syrian National Coalition (SNC). Perhaps these quick steps which are being achieved by the Turkish state through its tools in the areas it occupied, aims, in one way or another, at highlighting the “inability of the Kurdish political leadership” in northeastern Syria to reach a consensual participatory formula among all parties.

The visit of a delegation of the so-called “Kurdish Independents Association” to the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), which was occupied by the Turkish-backed mercenary factions, at the beginning of this year, and the start of searching for places to open their offices within the newly occupied areas, raised many questions about the content of this visit and the reason behind that, knowing that such entities were largely marginalized since the beginning of their establishment. However, since the launch of the intra-Kurdish dialogue rounds in April 2020, the Turkish state began to float the Kurdish card within the SNC and grant some facilities to its members and the leaders of those entities.

These moves came intensively since the beginning of 2021, and expanded until joining the Kurdish Independents Association within the National Coalition as an independent entity although there are some agreements and treaties between the SNC and the ENKS which prevents any Kurdish political entity or personalities to independently join the SNC.

On the other hand, and in the context of the SNC moves within the framework of floating the Kurdish card and trying to contain the situation regarding the continued violations committed by the Turkish-backed mercenary factions in Afrin, the SNC president, Nasr al-Hariri visited the city of Erbil in March and met with the former President of Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Masoud Barzani, where they exchanged views regarding the situation in Syria and receiving Syrian refugees by the Kurdistan Region, according to reports by the SNC Department of Information and Communications. While the SNC Media Department confirmed the Kurdistan Region’s support for the Syrian people with its various segments in its war against the armed groups in Syria that “kill” the Syrian people. These allegations and information issued by the SNC, were a prelude to a project proposal that will soon come to light due to the SNC emphasis on one point, that is the rights of the Kurdish community in Syria, according to observers.

Based on the above, the message sent by the SNC on the anniversary of Nowruz on March 20, in addition to the participation of the SNC President, Nasr al-Hariri, along with members of the Kurdish Independents Association in Afrin and members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party – Syria to the celebrations held in Afrin, confirms the SNC and the Turkish state intention to exploit and float the Kurdish issue. This information came at a time when several reports issued from the city of Afrin that are prepared by Western media, headed by the New York Times, about the stability in Afrin and that the majority of the residents in Afrin have fled the oppression of the armed forces in Syria, including the Syrian regime, with the assertion that “the Turkish army has protected the Syrians and secured the return of the Syrians to the Syrian territories.”

This information coincides with the complete bias carried out by some Kurdish figures affiliated with the political entities that are currently involved in the intra-Kurdish dialogue under the auspices of the US and the SDF. Perhaps this bias, in addition to this float by the Turkish state of the Kurdish card and Kurdish political entities, the last of which was the formation of the Supreme Commission for Syria’s Kurds in the city of Afrin and giving them expanded powers to move within the city of Afrin and all the areas occupied by the Turkish state, warns of a division project that the Turkish state is trying to achieve through some figures affiliated with the National Coalition, on top of whom are the Kurdish figures in Afrin.

Based on the above, while the US and the SDF are seeking to complete the intra-Kurdish dialogue, the Turkish state, through the SNC and some of the tools it has recently established and relying on some Kurdish personalities tries to influence the course of the intra-Kurdish dialogue. These indicators had been confirmed earlier, during the Kurdish Independents Association and some Kurdish figures in the city of Afrin, to issue a statement containing 700 fake names of people rejecting the Autonomous Administration’s tutelage over the regions of northeastern Syria and rejecting the Kurdish parties as a whole, including the ENKS. Are these steps at this time warning a rift that may affect the ENKS and divide it between the east of the Euphrates and the west of it?