Will Syrian Kurdish forces advance on Raqqa?
The head of Rojava’s interior committee Kanaan Barakat speaks to Al-Monitor about the achievements of the autonomous administration, the potential for an advance on Raqqa and relations with the Syrian regime.
AMUDA, Syria — Interior Minister of Syria’s Jazeera canton Kanaan Barakat, who hails from the city of Girke Lege in Hasakah governorate 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Qamishli, worked as a lawyer until the proclamation of the democratic autonomous administration on Jan. 21, 2014, in northern and northeastern Syria, known as Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria.
Appointed in May 2014 as head of Jazeera canton’s interior committee, which is a position equivalent to that of an interior minister, Barakat is in charge of security, police and transportation in Jazeera canton. Al-Monitor interviewed Barakat about the recent developments in the Kurdish region of Syria.
The text of the interview follows:
Al-Monitor: How is it possible to govern the Kurdish region given the large swathes of land you control, both Kurdish areas such as the cantons of Jazeera, Afrin and Kobani, and the Arab areas such as the town of al-Shadadi, and others? And what about the northern Syrian town of Manbij [50 miles northeast of Aleppo]?
