Kurdish protesters clashed with the militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the rebellious town of Amude on March 27 over the lack of services which resulted in several wounded and led to fears of more fights between Kurds in Syria.

The clash lead again to tensions between the supporters of the imprisoned PKK-leader Öcalan and supporters of Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region in neighboring Iraq and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Syria. The Syrian Kurds have been heavily influenced by Kurdish parties from outside, although they have their local parties.

The town of Amude is famous among Kurds for its history. Every year, Syrian Kurds commemorate the killing of hundreds of Kurdish schoolchildren, who died in a cinema fire in Amude on Nov. 13, 1960, which was blamed on Arab nationalists.

“Amude is a beloved city because of the cinema fire, and because they always make jokes, and they were the first to destroy Assad’s statue, in 2004, in the history of the Baath Party,” said Bader Mustafa, a member of the Kurdish Youth Movement (TCK), an independent Kurdish youth group operating in Syria.