What Mutual Expectations do the Kurds and the Russians Have?
Russian news site Gazeta.ru recently referred to the opening of representative office for Syrian Kurdistan in Moscow. According to the news site, on the one hand, the alliance with the Kurds is aiming at using them against the fight with ISIS and has the potential to evoke complaint of Ankara. On the other hand, the Kurds are worried about the possibility of becoming unnecessary to the Russians after their relations with the Turks will be warmed up.
Continuing on the issue, the news site notices that the opened representative office officially becomes the second one in the world so far as such a body the Kurds have only in Iraqi Kurdistan, which has received autonomy from Baghdad. Consequently, according to the news site, it is not a result of coincidence that the Kurds call this event a historical one.
The representative office promises to act for the sake of protection of the interests of all Kurds living not only in Syria but also in all over the world.
“While talking to us the Kurds reassured that Kurdish representative offices are planned to be opened in France, Germany and, it is quite possible, in the USA, though Kurd’s adversary Turkey is a member state of NATO, the Western bloc sees the Kurds as worthy ally in the fight against the ISIS,” the news site writes.
Continuing on the issue, the news site notices that the Kurds living both in Syria and Iraq have good relationships with the USA and are the second force fighting against the ISIS in Middle East after the troops of Bashar al-Assad.
Referring to the support given to the Kurds by Russia, the news site writes that Russia approaches to this question quite carefully by not officially giving the Kurds military support. Moreover, no representative from the Russian side was present at the opening ceremony of representative office for Syrian Kurdistan in Moscow, especially from the diplomatic corps.
“We see Russia as our strategic partner and that fact is of utmost importance to our state. Actually, Russia shows great assistance to us in international political arena in the framework of the Syrian war helping us through diplomatic methods,” says a representative of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party Abu Saly.
Further, the news site cites the viewpoint of the representatives of Kurdish diaspora according to which the Kurds, nevertheless fear that Russia can possible regret its decision of silently supporting the Kurds.
“One of the powerful figures from the Kurdish side once told us that it has been quite a long time that the Russian authorities are negotiating with Ankara over handing Kurdish Labour Party leaders to them instead getting the Chechen separatists back, but still the parties were not able to come to an agreement over that issue,” writes the news site.
According to the news site, the main goal of the Kurds in establishing relations with the Russians is receiving guarantees in gaining autonomy from Russia after successfully finalizing the war in Syria.
“According to our interviewee, during Putin-Assad closed meeting, the latter gave such guarantees, but the Kurds do not tend to believe those guarantees because of the complicated relations with official Damascus for many years,” writes the news site.
The news site also draws attention to the fact that during the opening ceremony of the representative office for Syrian Kurdistan in Moscow there were present representatives of Donetsk People's Republic, particularly Alexander Borodai, who is the founder of Union of Donbass Volunteers.
According to the news site, Alexander Borodai mentioned that the relations between the Kurds and him are beginning to develop and it was Kurds who first contacted him. The news site, though, writes that the Kurdish issues was discussed in Kremlin after the detection of tension in the relations between Russia and Turkey. Moreover, according the sources close to Kremlin, it was Borodai who first contacted the Kurds without having any order from Kremlin.
At the same time, the news site writes that the widely spread rumors about the thing that several detachments from Donetsk and Luhansk were sent to Syria together with the Russian troops are false. All the recorded cases concerning the issue are few in number and are caused by the difficulties emerging from dealing with the Damascus authorities over issues alike.