Syria Kurds' First Foreign Office to Be Opened in Moscow

Turkey says Syrian Kurds are affiliated to the PKK, an organization outlawed in Turkey and considered a "terrorist" entity by the EU, the US, and NATO. File photo, EPA/BGNES

A representative office of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) of Syria is to be opened in the Russian capital Moscow on Wednesday.

Russia's Foreign Ministry had earlier stated it could not allow such an office to appear in the country under current legislation, but an agreement was then reached that the structure would function as a non-profit organization.

Among the guests of the ceremony will be representatives of self-proclaimed Donbass republics and the separatist states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian news outlet RBC reports.

This will be the first representative structure of the PYD outside the territories of what Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq call "Kurdistan".

Farhat Patiyev, a Russian official is a member of the international affairs council with President Vladimir Putin, has told RBC "very tight cooperation" is needed among Kurdish forces and "foreign actors" such as the EU, the US, and Russia. "There is a real threat and dangers, a consolidation is needed in the region... to counter the terrorism threat."

“Our ambition is to rally support behind our Kurdish enclave in Syria through this office,”  Kurdish media network Rudaw quotes Abdulsalam Ali, the Syrian Kurdish envoy to Moscow, as saying.

Like the United State, Russia has also shown support for the PYD in its fight against Islamic State.

A visit of US officials to PYD-controlled territories has recently sparked anger from Turkey, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urging Washington to choose whether they consider Turkey or "the terrorists in Kobane" to be their partner.  

Turkey, on the other hand, says the PYD is linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an outlawed organization considered a terrorist entity by NATO and the European Union (but not by Russia).

However, AFP agency quotes a PYD official as saying this will be the first in a series of offices the organization intends on opening, the next ones possibly being based in Washington, Paris and even "Arab countries" to ensure the Kurdish autonomous region gains international recognition.

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