Security forces with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) have forcefully closed the office of Kurdish Yekiti Party in the city of Ras al-Ain, in north-eastern Syria, when the party was preparing to hold a seminar at their office in the eastern district of the city.
The Director of the Office, Badran Misto, told Yekiti Media that "a group of young PYD followers climbed our office in the afternoon at 01.30, and tore up all the signs prepared for the seminar dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the ill-fated Arab Belt project. The PYD group tore the flag located in the office, without touching anything else".
"Despite what happened, we were determined to hold the seminar and receive the participants, but before we starting the speeches, a patrol of YPG security forces headed by someone called Furat stormed the meeting and asked everyone to leave this assembly because it is unlicensed and becasue they raised the flag of independence," Miso said, adding that the YPG forces said the flag represents the Free Syrian Army "and is the flag of our enemy, and whoever raises the flag of our enemy is our enemy."
"As for you," they reportedly addressed to Misto himself, "you are an enemy and a traitor to our homeland and you have to leave the city within 24 hours, otherwise you will see something that does not satisfy you," Misto quoted them as saying.
Misto said he replied that "this threat and this speech are totally unacceptable".
Misto said that during the debate between him and Furat, the official of YPG in the courtyard of the office, "I received the news that the office was surrounded by PYD security forces and nearly 20 vehicles full of armed fighters were waiting outside. Then one of them stepped forward, claiming that he was the official leader of PYD security forces in the city, and asked them to take down the banner of the party from the office and close it until obtaining a license."
"We refused to take down the banner that bears the name of the party, so PYD security forces took it down and closed the office, threatening anyone tries to re-open it," he said.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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