Îlham Ehmed

Îlham Ehmed (Arabic: إلهام أحمد), also rendered as Îlham Ahmed, is a Kurdish politician from Syria and a member of Democratic Union Party^[1] currently serving as the co-president of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava)^[2][3] and member of the executive committee of the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) coalition.^[4][5] Until July 2018, she was a co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC),^[6][5] a political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces that acts as the legislature for Rojava.

An ethnic Kurd born in Afrin,^[7] Ehmed has been outspoken on the aim of a programmatically polyethnic character of a future Syria. At the start of the second Raqqa campaign in November 2016, she said:

Such an administration could provide a good example for democratic change in Raqqa, especially that the city has been for years a de facto capital for the ISIS terrorist group. This accomplishment would be a major change in the overall situation in Syria, and would help the country move towards stability, democratic change. Raqqa will be an example for the whole country.^[8]

Having been involved with the Kurdish nationalist movement since the 1990s,^[7] Ehmed seeks have a decentralized government in the form of a federalized Syria.^[9] She claims that local civilian councils and governments would emerge in Syrian Kurdistan in such a decentralized state that guarantee the rights of different Syrian groups,^[9] including freedom of speech, and gender equality.^[9] She advocates for the rights of the Kurdish people to be guaranteed in the Syrian constitution.^[9] Ehmed took part in negotiations with the Syrian government in Damascus concerning services that shall be provided also in the areas governed by the SDC in July 2018.^[10] She has since repeatedly laid the blame for the failure of political talks on Damascus, stating:

The ruling regime has not changed its stance, not on the humanitarian or political levels. It has not shown any flexibility towards the Syrians who are at odds with it. It rejected channels of communication to address the aftermath of the earthquake and ensuing humanitarian catastrophe...They are the main obstacle in unifying the Syrian vision.^[11]

After both Turkey's threat to attack Afrin and U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration that the United States would withdraw its troops from the territories governed by the SDC in December 2018, Ehmed travelled to Paris with SDC co-chair Riad Darar to talk with the French government about further cooperation with the French troops stationed in the areas governed by the SDC. French troops would remain in Syria following negotiations with France.^[12]

• Interview with Al-Monitor (December 2016)