Rival Kurdish Parties Clash in Syria
Fighting between rival Kurdish groups in Syria adds further uncertainty to the war in Syria, writes Wladimir van Wilgenburg.
Clashes between Kurdish militias broke out in rural Kurdish areas of the province of Aleppo on March 7. According to UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least four fighters were killed, and other Kurds were captured by the the People’s Defense Units (YPG). The fighting shows the underlying tensions among Kurdish political groups in Syria and brings back memories of the civil war between Kurdish parties in neighboring Iraq in the 1990s.
The fighting broke out in the villages of Burj Abdilla and Abdilla in the Efrin region, in the province of Aleppo between supporters of the Kurdish Freedom Party (Azadi, in Kurdish) and the People’s Defense Units, an ally of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is close to the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is fighting in Turkey for cultural rights for the Kurdish minority.
The Kurdish Freedom Party led by Mustafa Cumma, a main rival of the PYD with grass-roots support especially in Kobani and Efrin, is the most critical of the PYD and its policies and accuses the PYD of authoritarianism and working with the Syrian government.
This while media affiliated with the PYD often accused the group of working with Turkey and supporting "armed gangs" such as the Kurdish Salahadin brigade and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) against the PYD.
