Mahmoud Barakat
22 February 2017•Update: 23 February 2017
By Halit Suleiman and Kemal Karagoz
AL-BAB, Syria
The PYD, the Syrian offshoot of the terrorist PKK organization, does not represent the Kurdish people, according to high-ranking member of a Kurdish faction within the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
"The PYD can’t represent the Kurds," Mahmoud Halu Abu Hamza, a commander of the FSA’s Ahfad Salahaddin ("Descendants of Saladin") Brigade, told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.
"They [the PYD] is trying to exert control over Syria’s Kurds by force," he said.
Abu Hamza said the PYD considered Kurds who supported Syria’s armed opposition as "more dangerous" than the Daesh terrorist group.
"Kurds who support the [Syrian] opposition are not welcomed by the PYD," he said.
Abu Hamza said he had been detained earlier by PYD militants due to his cooperation with opposition groups against the PKK offshoot.
The commander explained that the Ahfad Salahaddin Brigade was comprised of Kurdish youth willing to fight the PYD, the PYD-linked Syrian Democratic Forces, and Daesh in and around Aleppo’s northern countryside.
Late last year, he said, his group had fought both Daesh and the PYD in the town of Mari north of Aleppo.
- PYD prisons
Abu Hamza said that PYD-run prisons were "worse" than the Assad regime’s notorious Sednaya Prison in capital Damascus, where thousands of anti-regime prisoners were reportedly executed.
"I was held for 15 months in a dark cell," he recalled. "They tortured me for more than four months because I had cooperated with the opposition."
Abu Hamza said the PYD had decided to execute him but that he was later released as part of a prisoner swap with opposition groups.
"The PYD killed two Kurdish youths in front of my eyes because they had cooperated with the opposition," he said.
Abu Hamza said his group was fighting the PYD with a view to preventing it from advancing on the cities of Azaz and Jarabulus.
"We have been aware of the PYD/PKK’s schemes in the region from the outset," he said. "The PYD/PKK serves [Syrian] regime's and Iran's interests in the region; it has no relation with the Kurdish people."
"If they cared about Kurds, they would not have displaced Kurdish families, and Kurdish youth would not have been forced to flee their oppression to Europe," he said.
Abu Hamza ruled out the possibility of establishing a "federation" comprising Afrin and Kobani, as both cities have sizable Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish populations.
"A federation between these two areas is unfeasible," he asserted. "Uniting Afrin and Kobani would lead to the displacement of local Arab and Turkmen families."
Abu Hamza went on to note that there were some 45 Kurdish villages located on the outskirts of Syria’s northern city of Al-Bab.
“Residents of these villages support the revolution against Bashar al-Assad and have stood by the Arabs,” he said.
“As for Kurdish youth, they oppose the PYD/PKK’s schemes and the division of Syria,” he said.
- Turkish support
Abu Hamza also thanked Turkey for hosting Syrian refugees and seeking to establish a safe zone for civilians in northern Syria.
“No one has been as concerned as the Turkish people regarding Syria’s plight,” he said.
The opposition commander reiterated his group’s support for the ongoing Turkish-led Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria.
“At all costs, we will prevent the PYD from gaining a foothold in the region,” he stressed.
Launched in August of last year, Operation Euphrates Shield is aimed at eliminating the terrorist presence in northern Syria along the Turkish border.
