Is Rojava’s model the awaited solution for Syrian crisis?
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Eldar Khalil, member of the governing body for the TEV-DEM, gives an overview of the Kurds’ situation in the Rojava region, a de facto autonomous region of Syria.
QAMISHLI, Syria — Eldar Khalil, a Syrian national and member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has been the shining star of the Syrian revolution since its outbreak in 2011. He was interviewed on behalf of Kurdish parties and set the foundations for their autonomy project to protect the Kurdish areas in the Rojava region — the term Kurds use to refer to western Kurdistan in Syria — including the Kurdish cantons of Kobani, Afrin and Qamishli.
In the prime of his youth, in the early 1990s, Khalil joined the PKK-linked People's Defense Force. He then became a member of the governing body for the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) until the founding of the Democratic Union Party in 2003.
He returned from the mountain between the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Turkish Kurdistan to Syria following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, and he is still present in Syria, in the northeastern region that has a Kurdish majority and is controlled by the Kurdish interim government and the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Those close to him confirm that Khalil exerts all efforts and works day and night for his cause and people.
Al-Monitor interviewed Khalil, 46, in Qamishli, in his capacity as a member of the governing body for the TEV-DEM. The text of the interview follows.
