A senior official from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has said a long-discussed Kurdish National Conference will be organised “as soon as possible” following broad consultations among Kurdish political groups.
Speaking after attending the 9th Sulaymaniyah Forum on 16–17 April in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî), Ilham Ahmed, Co-Chair of the AANES Foreign Relations Department, said preparations for the conference were advancing despite differing views on format and timing.
The annual forum in Sulaymaniyah brings together politicians, academics, and civil society figures to discuss regional developments. In a panel focused on Syria, participants reportedly agreed that a return to the country’s pre-2011 centralised system of governance was no longer feasible.
“The common view expressed was that the old system cannot be restored,” Ahmed told ANHA, an AANES-affiliated media outlet. “There were differing proposals, from decentralisation to a federal model, but all agreed that a centralised structure is unsustainable.”
She argued that decentralisation would enable communities in Syria to participate in political decision-making and exercise self-governance. “This highlights the urgency of the issue,” she said, referring to the broad support expressed at the forum for decentralised governance.
Ahmed also defended the governance model established by the AANES, which emerged during the Syrian conflict and operates independently from the central government in Damascus. The administration includes representatives from various ethnic and religious groups, including Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs, and others.
“This model reflects the collective political will of all the region’s communities, including women,” she said. “It has attracted interest from many political actors, and there is a shared belief that Syria must be governed jointly.”
During the forum, Ahmed held private talks with several politicians and said the meetings had been constructive. She added that although no date had been finalised for the Kurdish National Conference, substantial progress had been made on key issues.
The proposed conference is expected to bring together a broad spectrum of Kurdish political forces from across Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran to establish a united position on regional developments and Kurdish political demands.
Ahmed called on Kurdish political parties to form a joint committee to represent Kurdish interests in future negotiations over Syria’s constitution. She said it was essential to secure constitutional recognition of Kurdish rights through united representation in talks with the Syrian government in Damascus.
