Qamishli (Syria) (AFP) – Thousands of people in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria rallied Wednesday in support of their autonomous administration and called for decentralisation as negotiations with Damascus over the region's future stall.
Damascus and Syria's Kurds have been in talks to integrate Kurdish civil and military institutions into the central government under a March deal, but differences between the two sides have held up implementation.
The Kurds have called for decentralisation, which Damascus has rejected.
Thousands of people were seen on the streets in the city of Qamishli, some raising the flags of the administration or the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the administration's de facto army.
Some held a banner reading: "The SDF is the will of the people."
In a speech, senior Syrian Kurdish official Aldar Khalil said: "When we talk about decentralisation, we want it for all Syria, not just our own region."
"If the Kurdish issue is not resolved, Syria will not be a democratic state and the crises will not end," he said.
Several rounds of talks have been held between Damascus and the Kurds since the March deal but tensions have stymied progress.
Kurdish officials have criticised a temporary constitutional declaration adopted by the new Islamist authorities who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, saying it failed to reflect Syria's diversity.
Sectarian clashes in south Syria's Druze-majority Sweida province in July and massacres of the Alawite community on Syria's coast in March have heightened Kurdish concerns.
Last month, Syria's Kurds criticised the forthcoming selection of members of a new transitional parliament as undemocratic, after authorities postponed the process for Kurdish-controlled areas in the north and northeast.
The selection process is due to take place this month.
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said last week that "negotiations with the SDF were going well, but it seems there has been some type of hindrance or slowdown in the deal's implementation".
He said he had done everything "in the interest of northeast (Syria) and everything that would facilitate... not reaching a battle or war."