Kurds in Syria protest oppressive policies of PYD

Hundreds of Kurds on Tuesday protested against the policies of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Al-Hasakah, Syria.

Nearly a dozen arrests of Syrian-Kurdish political figures sparked an internal row and called for protests in the northeast city of Qamishli.

Supporters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (PDKS) in the areas of Qamishli, Amude, Girke Lege and Tirbespi protested against the wave of arrests by PYD militants in Rojava against the officials and members of the PDKS and the Kurdish National Council (KNC).

Following the demonstrations, some protesters including a political bureau and members of the Kurdish Union Party were arrested by PYD militants.

The KNC leader, Ibrahim Biro, was extradited on Sunday, after spending one day in Asaiysh prison in Amude.

Biro was arrested by the PYD along with the leader of the Kurdish Union Party, Sleman Oso, but were both released.​​

Turkey considers the PYD as the Syrian extension of the PKK and a terrorist group.

Turkey along with NATO and the United States considers PKK as a terrorist group.

PYD's human rights violations

Biro said on Wednesday the PYD is violating human rights and Western nations are ignoring their actions.

In exclusive comments to Anadolu Agency, Biro said the PYD was actively working against any group it considered a threat, while attempting to assert its control over northern Syria by using the fight against DAESH as a pretext.

"They're exploiting the [international] fight against the DAESH terrorist group to attack their opponents," he said.

In recent months, the PYD has reportedly indulged in the ethnic cleansing of areas under its control, arbitrarily detained its political opponents and forced local residents to fight on its behalf.

Biro went on to assert that Western countries tended to overlook rights breaches committed by the PYD in northern Syria, a policy he said "facilitates the group's ongoing domination of the region".

He added that the KNC, a coalition of Syrian Kurdish parties generally at odds with the PYD, had documented evidence of the PYD's violations.

"We plan to submit this evidence to foreign diplomats based in Erbil," he said, referring to the administrative capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

"We will not remain silent about the PYD's aggression against our people. The Kurds of Syria didn't revolt against Damascus just to bring another dictator."

He went on to urge western countries, particularly the US, to "reconsider" their support for the PYD, stressing that the latter was "not the only armed force in the region".

"There are also Syrian peshmerga forces loyal to the Kurdish National Council that are more than ready to fight."

Western countries, the Kurdish leader asserted, "are using the PYD to pursue their own agendas in Syria; but it will not continue like this forever".

"Our [peshmerga] forces in Iraq's Kurdish region will soon move to Rojava in northern Syria. The Western countries will end up regretting their mistakes."

According to Biro, Syria's Kurds "will never surrender to the PYD's dictatorial views and methods".

"Our people have never followed the PYD or taken a pro-PYD stance," he said.

"The group may have weapons and money, but most of the people don't share their ideology.

"We have learned from experience. We fought the tyranny of the Baathist Assad regime and now we reject the tyranny of a Kurdish Baathist regime."

In late 2015, the Amnesty International released a report in which it documented the human rights violations by the YPG which is PYD's armed wing.

The United Nations has also several times slammed their human rights violations in Syria.