| Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria | |
| Native Name: | Kurdish: پارتی دیموکراتی کوردستان سووری Arabic: الحزب الديمقراطي الكُردستاني في سوريا |
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| Leader: | Saud Malla[1] |
| Foundation: | 1957 (In Syria) |
| Headquarters: | Currently in Western Europe and the United States |
| National: | Kurdish National Council[2] |
| Ideology: | Kurdish nationalism Kurdish autonomy Liberal democracy Social conservatism[3] Traditionalism |
| Position: | Centre |
| Website: | http://www.pdk-s.com/ |
| Country: | Syria |
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (Kurdish: Partiya Demokrat a Kurdistanê li Sûriyê Kurdish: پارتی دیموکراتی کوردستان سووری; Arabic: الحزب الديمقراطي الكُردستاني في سوريا Hizb Al-Dimuqrati ِAl-Kurdistani fi Suriya), commonly known as KDPS or PDK-S, is a Kurdish Syrian political party founded in 1957 by Kurdish nationalists in northern Syria. The party is based in Hamburg, Germany and has various branches in France, United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States of America.
The party emerged from former members of a literary club, which promoted the use of the Kurdish language and was dissolved in 1956. Following, Osman Sabri and Abdul Hamid Darwish began to plan for the establishment of a Kurdish party. Sabri began to formulate a party program in the Kurdish language together with Jalal Talabani, who at the time has settled in Damascus in exile.[4] Osman Sabri, Nûredin Zaza and Abdul Hamid Darwish, along with some other Kurdish politicians, founded the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) on the 14 June 1957.[5] The party's secretary was Sabri and Nuredin Zaza became the first president in 1958. The objectives of KDPS were promotion of Kurdish cultural rights, economic progress and democratic change. KDPS was never legally recognized by the Syrian state and remains an underground organization, especially after a crackdown in 1960 during which several of its leaders were arrested, charged with separatism and imprisoned. After the failure of political union with Egypt in 1961, Syria was declared an Arab Republic in the interim constitution. During the parliamentary elections of 1961, the KDPS won no seats in the Syrian Parliament. On 23 August 1962, the government conducted a special population census only for the province of Jazira which was predominantly Kurdish. As a result, around 120,000 Kurds in Jazira were categorized as foreigners even though they were in possession of Syrian identity cards.[6] In fact, the inhabitants had Syrian identity cards, which they were told to hand them over to the administration for renewal. However, those who submitted their cards received nothing in return. A media campaign was launched against the Kurds, with slogans such as Save Arabism in Jazira! and Fight the Kurdish threat!. These policies coincided with the beginning of Mustafa Barzani's uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan and the discovery of oilfields in the Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria. In June 1963, Syria took part in the First Iraqi–Kurdish War by providing aircraft, armoured vehicles and a force of 6,000 soldiers against the Kurds. Syrian troops crossed the Iraqi border and moved into the Kurdish town of Zakho in pursuit of Barzani's peshmerga[7]
KDPS went through several divisions in the 1960s. Mustafa Barzani (the father of Mesud Barzani, the current president of Iraqi Kurdistan) attempted to reunify the party by inviting all the factions to Iraqi Kurdistan in 1970. Additionally, he reached out to various national independents with the intention of bringing the party together in the Nobardan region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Despite the shared belief in the importance of unity among both the "left" and "right," they ultimately diverged. As a result, the majority ultimately adhered to the principle of unity, leading to the establishment of the Interim Leadership under the guidance of Daham Miro and his like-minded associates, who prioritize the approach of Kurdish unity.[8]
On July 31, Daham Miro, the secretary of the party, alongside several other members of the leadership and national figures who supported the party, were arrested by the Military Intelligence Directorate. This was in response to the party's statement regarding the government's actions in implementing the Arab Belt Project's measures in the Kurdish regions back in 1973.[9]
Historian Jordi Tejel has identified "Greater Kurdistan" as being a "Kurdish myth" that was promoted to Syrian Kurds by the KDPS.[10]
The KDPS did not join the Syrian National Council at first, Secretary-General Abdulhakim Bashar seeing this body as too influenced by the country of Turkey. He demanded guarantees for the Syrian Kurdish population by the SNC and, in turn, stated Turkey's obligation to grant full rights to its own Kurdish population.[11] Following disputes with the dominant Kurdish party in Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the KDP-S however later led the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) to join the SNC.
To counter the PYD's dominance in the Kurdish National Council (ENKS), the KDP-S set up an alliance named Kurdish Democratic Political Union in late 2012. The strategy however failed and even backfired ultimately driving other ENKS members into cooperation with the PYD.[12] In early April 2014, the Kurdish Freedom Party in Syria (Kurdish: Partiya Azadî ya Kurdî li Sûriyê, or Azadî), and three other parties merged into the KDP-S.[13]
In Syria, the constitution states that political parties cannot be founded on ethnic, religious, regional and tribal basis, which has been one of the pretexts used to persecute Kurdish political organizations.
In 1975, Muhammad Baqi Mulla Mahmoud spearheaded the initial division by establishing the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Party. He argued that the party ought to be Syrian and distinct from the Kurdish region, following a setback in the Kurdish revolution due to the March 1975 Algiers Agreement.[14] [15]
Muhyiddin Sheikh Ali's decision to defect from the party was based on his objection to the Kurdish involvement in the Syrian legislative elections.[16] This caused a division within the party's structure, resulting in two factions: one that retained the party's name and another that formed the Kurdish Democratic Labor Party in Syria. Muhyiddin Sheikh Ali became the secretary of this new party. Later, in 1990-1993, the party merged with other factions from the Kurdish movement in Syria, including the Parti wing of the 1988 Congress led by Ismail Omar. This culminated in the formation of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria - Yekiti - with Muhyiddin Sheikh Ali as the secretary and Ismail Omar as the president, as elected in the party's last two conferences in 2001-2005.[17]
During the 1989 party conference, Ismail Omar,[18] a Political Bureau member, broke away from some of his supporters. He exploited the Party's ongoing issues and claimed to be following the Mustafa Barzani line and obeying the Kurdish leadership in Iraqi Kurdistan. For a while, he kept the party and its central newspaper's name before ultimately deciding to rename both entities.[19]
Nasr al-Din Ibrahim was responsible for the fourth split.[20] The eighth party conference was marked by intense disagreements between two factions, with the majority accusing the party secretary of straying from the party's established political stance and aligning with groups that do not have the party's best interests at heart. Specifically, the leadership of the Kurdish Progressive Democratic Party in Syria was implicated. This led to the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party withdrawing from the conference, along with a number of their supporters.[21]
Abdel Rahman Alouji and another prominent member of their party bloc carried out a fifth party split. They departed from the party, citing various reasons, with the primary concern being the party secretary's overuse of power, leading to inaction within the party's leadership and support base.[22] The party secretary rejected the election results, which led Alouji to form a new party, but with the same name.[23]