Snapshots of Abd al-Hamid Hajj Darwish and Abdulhakim Bashar: The KDP and PUK’s Kurdish Proxy Leaders in Syria

Snapshots of Abd al-Hamid Hajj Darwish and Abdulhakim Bashar: The KDP and PUK’s Kurdish Proxy Leaders in Syria

The Syrian government has routinely harassed, repressed and discriminated against the Syrian Kurds for decades. Since the Arab Spring arrived in Syria, the country’s government forces have abandoned many Kurdish populated areas, allowing the Syrian Kurds to fill the power vacuum in those areas. Most Kurdish areas in Syria are controlled by the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD—Democratic Union Party), an affiliate of the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK—Kurdistan Workers’ Party). 

The Kurdish National Council (KNC) formed in October 2011, includes fifteen Syrian Kurdish parties, all opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the PKK. The PYD and KNC have had an antagonistic relationship for much of the Syrian Civil War. The Kurdish groups came under geopolitical pressure from the Turkish government and the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq, combined with the threat of attacks from Arab militant Salafist groups, particularly, Jabhat al-Nusra. In response, the PYD joined the KNC to form the Kurdish Supreme Committee, with the intention to collaborate and jointly rule cities controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces. The Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party in Syria (KDPPS—Partiya Demokrat a Pê?verû ya Kurdî li Sûriyê) and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria (KDP-S—Partiya Demokrat a Kurdî li Sûriyê, a.k.a. al Partî) are the main actors inside the KNC. KDPPS leader Abd al-Hamid Hajj Darwish and KDP-S leader Abdulhakim Bashar both play a major role in the KNC because Darwish is backed by the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), while the KDP-S is backed by Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). 

Background on the Parties 

The three main Kurdish parties in the Middle East are the PKK, which is opposed to Turkey; the KDP led by Massoud Barzani, which is opposed to Iraq; and the PUK led by Jalal Talabani. All three play a major role in Kurdish politics in Syria. Before 2009, most of them maintained strategic ties with the Assad-regime in order to receive assistance in their fight against Turkey or Iraq. [1] As a result, the PKK, KDP and PUK all have their sister parties in Syria: 

1. The PKK-affiliated PYD, led by Salih Muslim since 2010.
2. The KDP-S led by Abdulhakim Bashar, since 2007, which is the sister party to Barzani’s KDP. [2]
3. The KDPPS led by Abd al-Hamid Hajj Darwish since the 1970s, is funded by Talabani’s PUK, cooperated with the PYD on the ground and joined armed militias of the PKK. 

Abdulhakim Bashar 

Dr. Abdulhakim Bashar was born on May 15, 1958. He is married with three children (Kurdwatch, December 16, 2010). Bashar studied medicine at Damascus University and was a doctor for 20 years in Qamishli. Bashar was a member of the KDP-S’s political bureau before assuming control of the party. Bashar was granted the position of secretary general of the KDP-S in 2007 with the support of KDP-S politician Saud Mullah who preferred Bashar over Nasrudin Birhik, the candidate who had more support from the public. 

Bashar was the first KNC president in 2011 and is currently the leader of the KDP-S. [3] Bashar leads the KDP-S from Erbil, a region of Iraqi Kurdistan where he fled to after 2011 (Kurd.net, February 10, 2013). He claims the PYD does not allow him to operate inside Syria. As a result, he has often clashed publically with the PYD. 

Reportedly, the KDP-S controls hundreds of Kurds trained by Barzani’s security forces in Iraq that refused to join PKK-backed militias. These militias do not have any influence on the ground in Syria. [4] The Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (YPG), the PKK-PYD militia, does not allow armed groups outside of its own to operate in Syria.

On November 25, 2009, Abdulhakim met with U.S. officials inside Syria to discuss the talks between the regime and the Kurdish parties. U.S. officials were impressed with Bashar’s ability to assemble a number of different Kurdish parties to discuss Kurdish demands with Assad’s representative, former MP Issam Baghdy, and believed he represented at least half of Syria’s Kurds. [5]

Unlike PYD-leader Salih Muslim, who suffers from the PYD’s affiliation with the PKK, Bashar enjoys good relations with Western countries and has been invited to Washington, London and Turkey. He is often accused by the PYD of supporting Turkish policies as a result of his close ties to the KDP, which enjoys good relations with Ankara. [6]

Abd al-Hamid Hajj Darwish

Abd al-Hamid Hajj Darwish studied law in Damascus and was one of the founders of the KDP-S in Syria. He controlled the party briefly between 1960-1965. Darwish eventually joined the Marxist camp of his schoolmate Jalal Talabani in 1965, who separated from Mullah Mustafa Barzani’s KDP, even though he was not a leftist. This led to the establishment of the KDPPS, supported by his personal friend Talabani in 1965 (Kurdwatch, December 2011).

Since the 1970s, Darwish has controlled the KDPPS. During Kurdish protests against the Syrian regime in Qamishli in 2004, he accused the Kurdish Yekîtî party of provoking the government, which shows that he opposes anti-regime actions like demonstrations and other activities. As a result of his moderate policy, he is often seen as pro-Assad.

His party has always tried to play a more cautious role in dealing with the Syrian regime, and also with the PYD after 2011, possibly because of the PUK’s good relations with Iran. Darwish played a leading role in negotiations with the Syrian opposition, such as on November 22, 2011, when he represented the Syrian Kurdish parties, in a meeting with the Secretary General of the Arab League (Kurdwatch, December 2011).

Moreover, as the Foreign Relations head of the KNC, he played a major role in the deal between the Syrian National Coalition and the KNC and an agreement between the PYD and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to stop fighting in the city of Ayn al-Arab in 2013 (Welati.net [Kobani], August 31, 2013). [7] 

Outlook

It is likely that PUK-supported Hamid Darwish and KDP-supported Abdulhakim Bashar will continue to play a role in Kurdish politics in the future, possibly as ministers in a post-conflict government. Both men are backed by an influential group and Kurdish leaders often stay in power for life. Reportedly, the PYD wants to include both politicians and their party members in a new Kurdish administration they are forming in Syria. However, currently the PYD and KNC are actively vying for control of Kurdish-populated areas in northern Syria. It is not clear yet whether the groups will be able to collaborate in a post-Assad Syria.

Notes

1. Jordi Tejel, Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics and Society, London, Routledge, 2009.

2. “Syria’s Kurds: A Struggle Within a Struggle,” International Crisis Group, January 22, 2013, https://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/egypt-syria-lebanon/syria/136-syrias-kurds-a-struggle-within-a-struggle.aspx.
3. John Caves, “Syrian Kurds and the Democratic Union Party,” Institute for the Study of War, December 6, 2012.

4. Eva Savelsberg, “The Kurdish Factor in the Syrian Revolution,” Syrian Studies Association Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 1, https://ojcs.siue.edu/ojs/index.php/ssa/article/view/2858/846.

5. Wikileaks, “No Dividend On Sarg-kurdish Backchannel Talks,” Damascus Embassy, November 25, 2009, https://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/11/09DAMASCUS826.html.

6. Jordi Tejel, Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics and Society, London, Routledge, 2009.

7. Ibid.