Remziye Mihemed from the coordination of the women's movement in northern and eastern Syria has sharply criticized the "Kurdish National Council" ENKS for attacking the model of co-chairmanship.

The ENKS is an extended arm of the KDP in South Kurdistan and has repeatedly collaborated militarily with Turkish fascism. In the context of building “Kurdish unit”, however, talks are taking place with the alliance of small parties. To this end, the new alliance “Parties of the United Nation of Kurdistan” (PYNK) organized meetings with the ENKS. The population responded very positively to this initiative and the leadership of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was able to accelerate the process of rapprochement.

However, the attitude of the ENKS changed after a visit to Turkey. Aldar Xelîl from the executive committee of the Democratic Unity Party (PYD) said on Ronahî TV that the ENKS had called for mother tongue teaching to be abandoned and for the regime to return to the educational system.

In particular, the ENKS rejection of the co-chair model has led to protests from the women's movement. It is likely that Ankara will again be behind this shift in position shown by the ENKS and thus try to politically destabilize the self-government.

"What is the aim of the ENKS?"

The women's movement has so far supported the meetings between PYNK and ENKS, explains Remziye Mihemed, coordinating member of the women's umbrella organization Kongra Star: “As Kongra Star we worked for Kurdish unity. Certain circles want to prevent these meetings and unity. They try to do this by undermining the autonomous administration project and the co-chair model. We want to know ourselves, what is the ENKS about? "

Mihemed adds that the ENKS also opposes gender quotas in councils. She says: “Women are very influential in decision-making. Work is also being done to enshrine women's rights in the constitution of Syria. "

"ENKS consists of patriarchal parties"

Regarding the ENKS's decision to call for the co-chairmanship to be lifted, Mihemed says: “We were amazed at this demand. Women play practically no role in the ENKS. The parties in the ENKS are ruled by men. But the women are the ones who founded the autonomous administration here. Women are active at all levels thanks to the dual leadership system. The Syrian Democratic Council also follows the model of co-chairmanship. It should be clear to all Kurdish parties that a party in which women do not play a political role can never be successful. The co-chairs system is the world's most successful model of leadership. We are convinced that we will still take important steps to expand this model."

Mihemed continues: “Such a demand is only in the interests of the regimes in Damascus and Ankara. So they want to destroy the basis of the autonomous administration, the co-chair system and all women's organizations. If the dual leadership system were abolished, one can no longer speak of democracy."