KURDISTAN Workers Party (PKK) second-in-command Cemil Bayik has appeared to distance the movement from the Rojava administration in northern Syria, insisting that the future for Kurds lay with Damascus.

In an interview with the al-Nahar newspaper today, he said that the PKK remained committed to Syrian unity, supporting an end to foreign occupation.

He cited the “close and warm” relations with former president Hafez al-Assad and his family, while welcoming plans for decentralisation announced in April which “opened the door to reconciliation.”