ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A joint delegation from northeast Syria’s (Rojava) ruling and opposition parties are set to visit Damascus later this month to meet with senior Syrian officials. Kurdish demands will be discussed during the meeting, a politician said on Saturday.
A delegation from the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) held meetings with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus earlier this month. It marked the first meeting between the ENKS and senior state officials since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024.
ENKS has been the main opposition umbrella group in Rojava since the Democratic Union Party (PYD), another Kurdish party, came to power in the early years of the Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011.
Sulaiman Oso, a senior ENKS official, who attended both meetings in Damascus, told Rudaw on Saturday that a delegation from the ENKS and a PYD-led alliance - which was formed last year following a pan-Kurdish congress in Rojava’s Qamishili - will visit Damascus later this month to hold meetings with Shaibani and “his aides.”
He added that Kurdish demands, together with other issues, would be discussed with the central government.
Regarding their meetings with Shaibani and Sharaa, the ENKS official said they discussed Sharaa’s recent presidential decree seeking recognition of Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights, but stressed that such measures should be enshrined in both the temporary constitution—approved last year—and the permanent constitution, which has yet to be drafted.
“The future of Kurds is clear. We say there must be constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people, as a fundamental people in Syria, with their political and national rights guaranteed. Other issues and details can be discussed by the joint committee, because in a meeting of one or one and a half hours, we could not discuss everything. But the fundamental point we can emphasize is that the meeting took place in a positive atmosphere. For example, Kurds must be partners in the country, with protected rights, and they must also administer their own region,” noted Oso.
The ENKS delegation is expected to brief Mazloum Abdi, leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto military force in Rojava, on their meetings in Damascus, according to Oso.
Dilbxwin Dara contributed to this article from Erbil, Kurdistan Region.