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Syrian Kurdistan’s representative office opens in Moscow

The representative office has no functions of an embassy
A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier holds a Kurdish flag (archive) EPA/STR
A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier holds a Kurdish flag (archive)
© EPA/STR

MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. A representative office of Syrian Kurdistan is opening in Moscow on Wednesday.

This will be a representative office of an NGO that has no functions of an embassy.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier told TASS the opening of the Kurds’ representative office is not envisaged by the Russian legislation. Their interests are advocated by the diplomats from the embassies of Syria and Iraq.

"The representative office will advocate the interests of Kurds who live in Russia and Syria, but many of them are not Syrian citizens," the chairman of the Council of the Federal National-Cultural Kurdish Autonomy, Farkhat Patiev, said in an interview with TASS last week.

Some 250,000 Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, currently live in Russia.

Syria’s Ambassador to Russia told TASS commenting on the opening of the office that Syrian Kurds are an important part of society in Syria, but Damascus does not divide the Syrian people upon an ethnic principle. "We learnt about that from the media and some other sources. I do not know anything about its tasks or the number of employees," the Syrian diplomat said.