Two of the biggest Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have joined forces to try to curb the power of Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region, in Syria. This is happening while Barzani has been working together with Turkey to limit the PKK's influence in Syria.

Relations between Kurdish political parties from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria have always been tense. This is the result of the Kurdish areas being divided between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, meaning Kurds are not united geographically. The different policies of Kurdish parties allegedly played a role in the delay of the National Kurdish Congress that was supposed to take place in September, but is now delayed until Nov. 25.

An example of these intra-Kurdish relations is the relationship between the PKK from Turkey led by the imprisoned Abdullah Ocalan, and the PUK headed by Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq.

From time to time, the two parties cooperated against the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud Barzani in Iraq, especially during the Kurdish civil war in the 1990s. But the PUK and PKK also fought each other. For instance, in 2002, the PKK-affiliated Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PCDK) wanted to form militias to protect itself against the PUK. Now, relations are quite good, and the PCDK participated in the elections in the Kurdistan region on Sept. 21.