Kurdish National Council blames PYD, SDF for stalled joint delegation
Shafaq News- Damascus
Syria's Kurdish National Council (ENKS) on Tuesday blamed the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for the breakdown of the Joint Kurdish Delegation, accusing the two groups of unilateral political and military decision-making that has obstructed efforts to unify Kurdish ranks and engage in dialogue with Damascus.
Responding to remarks by PYD co-chair of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, Berivan Khalil, who had accused the council of obstructing the delegation's work and called on it to "return to the Kurdish ranks" and join a new Kurdish conference, ENKS rejected the call, describing it as an attempt to bypass the outcomes of the Unity of Kurdish Position and Ranks Conference held on April 26, 2025, where more than 400 Kurdish and minority representatives met in al-Hasakah.
Suleiman Oso, a member of the ENKS presidency council, told Shafaq News that the agreement establishing the joint delegation prior to its formation stipulated that all decisions be made by consensus, with no single party authorized to speak on its behalf or convene meetings unilaterally. Recent invitations extended by the PYD to individual Kurdish parties violate that arrangement, Oso said, accusing the party and the SDF of monopolizing political and military decisions and ignoring council demands to activate the delegation's role in negotiations with Damascus.
“For the past year, the council has pressed SDF commander Mazloum Abdi to form a unified Kurdish reference body and activate the delegation's work. Those demands went unmet,” Oso added, considering “a failure” stalled implementation of the April 26 agreement with Damascus and left none of its provisions fulfilled.
The council's statement also accused the PYD of derailing earlier agreements, including the 2020 Qamishli accord, and of stalling on a genuine partnership for administering Kurdish-majority areas. The Joint Kurdish Delegation, formed to coordinate Kurdish political engagement with the Syrian government, has held dozens of meetings with international delegations and sent diplomatic missions to several European countries; a formal request for a meeting sent to Syrian transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa has so far gone unanswered, according to the statement.
The ENKS said achieving the national rights of the Kurdish people requires adherence to national consensus, respect for the principle of partnership, and an end to unilateral policies, which “have failed to serve the Kurdish cause.”
Read more: SDF–Damascus deal moves into implementation in Syria’s Hasakah
