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Syrian Kurds Present Constitutional Proposal to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov

Sharif Karim / Reuters

Syrian Kurds presented their own draft constitutional proposal for a federalized Syrian state during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and representatives of other Syrian opposition groups.

"Our constitution, which we present, is a federal constitution that already exists in the north of Syria. This constitution is separate from that presented by Russia, in our view," said a representative of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party Abdsalam Ali in an interview with the Interfax news agency.

Ali also noted that in the existing autonomous regions in northern Syria there are also Arabs and other minorities, who enjoy equal rights under the local constitutional system. 

According to Ali, Syria's Kurds have comments to add to the Russian delegation's draft proposal on the new Syrian constitution, which contains provisions that include language equality between Kurdish and Arabic. 

Syria's other opposition groups, however, have refused to consider the Russian constitutional proposal, providing no specific objection other than that it was "written in another country." 

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