Moscow Support Crucial for Syrian Federalization - Kurdish Representative

Russian support is very important for the success of the federalization project that the Syrian Kurds announced Thursday, the chairman of the International Union of Kurdish Public Associations told Sputnik on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — Earlier on Thursday, members of a Kurdish conference in the Syrian town of Rmeilan announced the creation of a federal region in Syria's north that would remain a part of Syria.

"This project should be sent to the Western countries, and to Russia. The role of Russia is very important here. If Moscow supports it, Damascus would be forced to support it as well," Merab Shamoev said.

The announcement came against the backdrop of a new round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva and strong opposition among all stakeholders to the division and the breakdown of Syrian territorial integrity.

So far, the federalization was rejected by Damascus as unlawful.

The project of Syrian federalization should be discussed at the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva with the participation of Kurds, the chairman of the International Union of Kurdish Public Associations told Sputnik.

"This question should be discussed in Geneva, and the Kurds would bring it to the talks," Merab Shamoev said, adding he was confident that Kurds would join the talks soon, as the previous rounds failed because the Kurds were not invited.

Shamoev stressed that if the Kurds were not invited to Geneva, they would not respect the results of the talks.