ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Speaking at a peace forum in Istanbul on Saturday, a senior member of the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) said that they want to open dialogue with Turkey as they continue discussions with the interim government in Damascus.
“We want to exchange visits with Turkish officials. We are not for war and weapons, but for peace,” said Ilham Ahmad, co-chair of Rojava’s foreign relations office.
Ankara considers the Kurdish administration in Rojava a security threat and its armed forces an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and Turkish officials have demanded they disarm as part of peace negotiations with the PKK.
The Rojava administration is now in talks with Turkey’s ally Damascus about integrating their civil and military institutions into federal structures and Ahmed said Syria’s security is tied to Turkey.
“We want to build a new Syria together with all its components. We want all components to live together within the framework of law and justice. We want everyone here to live freely according to their ideas and beliefs,” said Ahmed.
“Stability in Syria means stability in Turkey. Peace and stability here will also be reflected in Turkey,” she added.
Ahmed was speaking at the International Conference on Peace and Democratic Society organized by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, which is mediating peace negotiations between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish state. Representatives from the Kurdistan Region were also in attendance as international figures. Panelists highlighted the importance of dialogue in achieving peace and stability in the region.
Ahmed was not able to attend the conference in person due to entry restrictions by the Turkish government and delivered her speech via video link.
“For Ilham Ahmed to come to Turkey, the government had to give her permission as per bureaucratic procedures, but when it was about someone like Ilham Ahmed, that did not happen,” said Cengiz Candar, a member of the DEM party.
He said that Turkish government statements in the past month indicate that they are not ready to take any steps towards negotiations with Rojava’s armed forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but Ahmed’s “online participation in the conference is an indication that in the near future Ilham Ahmed and Mazloum Abdi might visit Ankara.”
Mazloum Abdi is the commander of the SDF.
A goal of the two-day conference in Istanbul is to develop a roadmap for lasting peace in the region.
“Peace does not simply appear. Peace comes through struggle, through courage, and through collective effort. I believe our conference will make a profound contribution by generating a roadmap and forming a focal point for this struggle,” DEM Party co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari said in her opening remarks.
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani sent a message read out by his spokesperson Amina Zekri.
“It is necessary that all parties learn lessons from past confusions, and treat all future obstacles and events with a new breath, a clear vision full of trust and hope,” his message said.
“Dialogue and understanding each other is always better than conflict and unrest. Humanity is always a winner in any dialogue and peace,” he added, congratulating the collective efforts of everyone pushing the peace process forward.
On February 27, PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan issued a landmark call for peace, urging the PKK to lay down arms and pursue a democratic path to securing cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey. In May, the PKK announced it would adhere to Ocalan’s call.
Founded in 1978, the PKK originally sought to establish an independent Kurdish state. In recent decades, however, it has shifted focus toward securing political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.
Nechirvan Barzani, president of Kurdistan Region, delivered a message through his representative Dilshad Shahab, saying that “peace is not merely the silencing of weapons, but rather a process for building trust, accepting one another, and finding common ground among differences.”
He reiterated Kurdistan Region’s support for the ongoing peace talks.
“Violence and conflict have brought nothing but destruction and backwardness to peoples. But whenever the door to dialogue has been opened, whenever there has been political will for peace, great opportunities for development and stability have emerged,” he said.
The PKK and Ankara have both said the Kurdistan Region plays a positive role in the peace process.
Turkey’s consul general to Erbil said in November that they are very thankful to Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani for his role in the peace talks.
The leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Bafel Talabani also sent a message, read by his representative Dara Khaylani, that said “the decisions we make today shape our present and determine the opportunities and freedoms of future generations - not only for the Kurds, but for all ethnic and religious components.”
Talabani said that PUK “firmly believes that the cycle of violence and division only gets deeper, and that a solution can be achieved solely through political dialogue.”
Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since his arrest in 1999, also sent a message that was read out at the conference, saying he hoped the forum “will foster important debates that can contribute to the development of a new perspective of political program and organization.”
“Through a strategy of democratic politics, it is possible to bring about change and transformation of the state and to rebuild society on democratic foundations. Grounding this strategy in law will form the lasting basis of peace,” he said.
Last month, a commission from Turkey’s parliament tasked with laying the legal groundwork for peace with the PKK, met with Ocalan.