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Moderate Kurdish politician takes over
Syria opposition
10.6.2012 |
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Leaders of the exiled Syrian National Council (SNC):
Kurdish politician Abdel Basset Sayda (C) named as
new chief of The opposition Syrian National Council
and Burhan Ghalioun (R). June 9, 2012. Photo: Getty
Images.
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New
Syria opposition chief Kurdish moderate
June
10, 2012
BEIRUT, — Kurdish activist and politician
Abdel Basset Sayda, who was named on Sunday to lead
the opposition Syrian National Council, is known for
his integrity but insiders say he has little
political experience.
He takes over the exiled dissident coalition at a
time of mounting tensions between activists and
rebel fighters on the ground inside Syria and the
emigres who have been the main contact with the
outside world.
Sayda replaces the SNC's first leader, Paris-based
academic Burhan Ghalioun, who stepped down last
month in the face of mounting splits that were
undermining the group's credibility.
Activists accused Ghalioun of ignoring the Local
Coordination Committees, which spearhead
anti-government protests on the ground, and of
giving the Muslim Brotherhood too big a role.
Sayda had been expected to be chosen by acclamation
but a brief statement put out by the SNC before dawn
on Sunday said he had been elected at a meeting of
the group's leaders in Istanbul the previous day.
He is seen as a consensus candidate capable of
reconciling the rival factions within the SNC and of
broadening its appeal among Syria's myriad of ethnic
and confessional groups.
Born in 1956 in Amuda, a mostly Kurdish city in
northeastern Syria (Western Kurdistan), Sayda is an
expert in ancient civilisations and author of a
number of books on Syria's Kurdish minority but is
Arabic educated.
He does not belong to any political party and his
name is not familiar to many Syrians but SNC
officials say he is a "conciliatory" figure,
"honest" and "independent".
The SNC has been criticised for not representing the
full diversity of Arabs,www.ekurd.net
Kurds, Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Christians, Druze
and other ethnic and religious groups in Syria.
Syria's Kurds represent around nine percent of
Syria's 23 million population. Most of them live in
the north of the country and in Damascus.
They complain of persistent discrimination, and
demand recognition for their Kurdish culture and
language, and that they be treated as full-fledged
citizens.
A dozen Kurdish political groups are banned by
Syrian authorities.
"Sayda does not have a lot of political experience,
he doesn't have a long history in the opposition,"
said Monzer Makhous, coordinator for the SNC's
external relations in Europe.
But "he has good relations with everyone," added
George Sabra, a veteran activist based in Paris, who
is member of the coalition's executive board.
Sayda is also on the board and heads the bloc's
human rights department. His key challenge will be
to turn the SNC into a credible interlocutor for the
international community.
His friend and fellow Kurdish militant Massu Akko
describes Sayda as "honest, level-headed and
cultured."
"He is very loyal to Syria and to the Kurdish
question, but he is a moderate. It is therefore a
message sent to the Kurds and all the minorities,"
said the SNC's external relations chief, Basma
Kodmani.
Sayda, 55, is married and has four daughters and a
son.
He holds a doctorate in philosophy from Damascus
University and was a university professor in Libya
for three years until he left for exile in Sweden in
1994, where he switched his interest to ancient
civilisations.
Sayda once told AFP that he "worked secretly in
politics" for a long time against Assad's regime.
Sources close to him say he was active within
Syria's Kurdish movement which staged several
uprisings against the regime in past decades.
Copyright © respective author or news agency,
AFP | ekurd.net
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