DUSHANBE, February 10, 2016, Asia-Plus – Russian media outlets have quoted the chairman of the Council of the Federal National-Cultural Kurdish Autonomy as saying, “A representative office of Syrian Kurdistan is due to open in Moscow on February 10.”
“This will be a representative office of the NGO that has no functions of an embassy,” Farhat Patiyev said on February 5.
The representative office will advocate the interests of Kurds who live in Russia and Syria, he said, adding that many of them are not Syrian citizens.
TASS
reports some 250,000 Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, currently live in Russia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier told
TASS
the opening of the Kurds’ representative office is not envisaged by the Russian legislation. Their interests are advocated by the diplomats from the embassies of Syria and Iraq.
We will recall that Russia”s
Kommersant
newspaper reported on October 20, 2015 the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) plans to open a mission in Russia, a move that would anger Turkey which sees the party as a terrorist group.
Leaders of the Kurdish group will hold consultations with the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow on October 21,
Kommersant
said, including talks about further steps toward the opening of a Russian office.
The purpose of the mission is to strengthen cooperation with Moscow in fighting Islamic State, the newspaper said.
Turkey suspects Russia, which launched air strikes in Syria three weeks ago, has been lending support to the PYD and its armed wing YPG.
Ankara has warned Moscow it would not tolerate Kurdish territorial gains close to its frontiers in north-western Syria.
Kommersant
quoted a Turkish diplomatic source as saying the opening of a mission by the PYD would provoke a harsh reaction from Ankara, with which Moscow already has strained relations over Syria.
