Bureau members of a preparatory conference to announce a federal system discuss a ‘Democratic Federal System for Rojava – Northern Syria’ in the Kurdish-controlled town of Rmeilan, Hasaka province, Syria March 16, 2016. (Source: Reuters/Rodi Said)
RMEILAN(Reuters) — Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northern regions voted to seek autonomy under a federal system on Thursday, angering both the Damascus government and neighboring power Turkey with a move that could complicate new U.N.-backed peace talks.
The vote to unite three Kurdish-controlled provinces appears aimed at creating a self-run entity within Syria, a status that Kurds have enjoyed in neighboring Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The proclamation is nevertheless an open challenge to many of the sides in Syria’s 5-year-old civil war, as well as their international sponsors, who have mainly been battling for control of what they say must remain a unified state and have dismissed any unilateral move toward federalism.
According to the Associated Press, representatives of more than 30 parties came together for a meeting in the town of Rmeilan in Syria’s Hassakeh province.
The two-day forum featured more than 200 delegates, including Arab, Kurdish, Armenian, Turkmen, Chechen, Syriac and many other folks from Northern Syria, Rojava, Shehba region, Aleppo-Minbic areas, the Kurdish Firat News Agency reports.
The forum was held under the slogan “Democratic Federative Syria – the guarantee of co-existence and friendship of peoples.â€
