Samir Geagea received Hero's welcome in Erbil's
predominately Christan district of Ankawa. In the
picture, Geagea crosses in front of a piece of
writing which has written "the people of Ankawa
welcomes Kurdistan's beloved guest Dr. Samir Geagea".
January
18, 2012
Lately, Iraqi Kurdistan has witnessed vital
political activity, starting from Burhan Ghalioun,
chairman of the Syrian National Council (SNC)’s
visit to Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese prominent druze
leader, to Samir Geagea, from Lebanese opposition
bloc, to Turkey’s deputy foreign minister, Fereydun
Sinirlioglu.
For some the stream of political leaders to
Kurdistan might be normal, but lately all the
political leaders that have visited Kurdistan are
somehow linked with Syria. Those who have visited
Kurdistan are from Syrian opposition, Lebanese
anti-Syrian leaders, and from Turkey an important
player in Syrian case. According to some information
that I could grab from Kurdish sources, in all the
meetings with the above people, Barzani has
discussed Syrian case. Burhan Ghalioun’s meeting
with Barzani which has taken place two weeks ago was
mostly about guarantees from SNC for Kurds in Syria
in return Kurdish National Council which represents
most Kurdish parties will join SNC.
Syrian Kurds have some demands to join the SNC
including studying in Kurdish in predominately
Kurdish cities and giving Kurds some kind of
self-ruling. Ghalioun took the demands to discuss it
with other members of the SNC. Worthwhile, some
Kurds still haven’t joined the demonstrations which
they belong to pro PKK parties. According to some
Kurdish journalists that have visited Murat
Karayilan in the last August, PKK doesn’t want
Bashar Al-Asad to be toppled. PKK has historical
ties with Syrian regime, they used to base in Syrian
territories before the imprisonment of Abdullah
Ocalan. Before Ghalioun, Walid Jumblatt, which
claims to have a neutral stance regarding Syria has
met with Barzani, Jumblatt used to be a die-hard
opponent of Syria’s Assad. Jumblatt, which has
Kurdish origins, discussed with Barzani withdrawing
from Lebanese government in the right time if it
needed; Lebanese government has a strong pro Syria
stance in the international community. Samir
Geagea’s meeting with Barzani, only a week ago, also
has connections with Syrian case.
According to unconfirmed information, Barzani which
has strong ties with many Lebanese parties is trying
to convince Jumblatt to negotiate with Geagea’s 8th
of Shubat bloc to fail current government, dominated
by Hizbullah. Turkey which has a harsh stance on
Syrian regime since the start of the uprising,
believed to be asked Barzani, strong ally of Turkey,www.ekurd.net
to use his good tie with Lebanese parties to fail
the pro Assad government in Lebanon; Turkish deputy
foreign minister, Fereydun Sinirlioglu, paid a visit
to Erbil before some days to discuss the
improvements of this case with Barzani. Moreover,
Sinirlioglu also met with Samir Geagea, and they
discussed Syrian case.
In addition, Kurdistan Islamic Union or (KIU), which
has strong ties with Iran, Turkey and Syrian Muslim
Brotherhood, is mediating between Iran and Syrian
Brotherhood, because Syrian Brotherhood knows if
Iran continue supporting Al-Assad, it would be
extremely hard to topple the regime with no hope of
foreign intervention. Again, Turkey, to be specific
Ahmet Davutoglu personally asked Salahaddin Bahaddin,
head of KIU to use its relationship to open a
negotiation channel between Iran and Syrian
Brotherhood. For this, before a month, Mr. Bahaddin
paid a visit to Istanbul to see leaders of Syrian
Brotherhood, and then visited Tehran. Moreover,
later, Bahaddin flight to Sudan to see Iran’s
friends, Sudanese president, Hassan Bashir and Hamas
leader, Khaled Mashaal which both have good
relationship with Iran, and both have Islamic
background.
Further details, yet not known. Furthermore, a week
ago, Salahaddin Bahaddin met with a delegation of
Kurdish National Council of Syrian Kurds in Erbil.
According to a source close to KIU, Bahaddin is
trying to mediate between Syrian Kurds and
Brotherhood as well. Syrian Kurds are striving to
get guarantees from opposition regarding Kurds amid
the growing chance to topple Al-Assad’s regime.
Iraqi Kurdistan with its strategic geo-political
location in between Syria, Turkey and Iran is
becoming a vital place of political struggle between
different actors that play a role in Syrian case.
Kurds keep a keen relation with both Middle Eastern
giants, Iran and Turkey. Barzani which used to have
a good tie with Al-Assad’s regime one day seems it
turned its face to the opposition with the growing
chance of uprising’s success.
Abdulla Hawez is a Freelance Journalist based in
Iraqi Kurdistan. Abdulla Hawez is a Kurdish
freelance journalist, blogger and civil society
activist based in Erbil, Kurdistan Region in Iraq.
He has participated in major regional and
international conferences; he has worked with some
international programs including Democracy Now, and
his works have appeared in some major Medias
including Today's Zaman, The Majalla, Middle East
Online and Global Politician. He is currently
student of Political Science and International
Relations at the University of Kurdistan-Hawler(UKH).
He can be reached at: twismart@live.com and you may
visit his Blog at: http://abdullahawez.blogspot.com/
Copyright © 2012 ekurd.net
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