Nuri Mahmoud (born 13 August 1977, Syria) is a former politician of the

Kurdish National Council The Kurdish National Council (KNC, , ENKS; ar, المجلس الوطني الكوردي ''al-Majlis al-Waṭaniyy Al-Kurdi'') is a Syrian Kurdish political party. While the KNC had initially more international support than the ruling Democrat ...

(ENKS) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) and current military officer and speaker of the Peoples' Defense Units (YPG).

Early life and education

He was born to a

Syrian Kurdish The Kurdish population of Syria ( ar, كرد سورية) is the country's largest ethnic minority, usually estimated at around 10% of the Syrian population Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, constituting around 10 per cent of the ...

family in

Qamishli Qamishli ( ar, ٱلْقَامِشْلِي, Al-Qāmišlī, ku, قامشلۆ, Qamişlo, syc, ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝ̈ܢ, Bēṯ Zālīn, lit=House of Reeds or syr, ܩܡܫܠܐ, translit=Qamishlo)

in August 1977. He attended high school where he was politically active. Therefore, he was not permitted to study further in Syria following which he emigrated to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. There he worked for the Kurdish National Council ( ENKS) between 2007 and 2011. Between 2012 and 2013, he served as a member of the executive committee of the Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Political and military career

In 2013 he was appointed to the position of an advisor in the process of establishing a legislative council and a judiciary by the civic council of

Kobanî Kobanî (, , also rendered , ar, كُوبَانِي, Kūbānī) ( Kurdish: Kobanî/ کۆبانی) officially Ayn al-Arab ( ar, عَيْن الْعَرَب, ʿAyn al-ʿArab ), is a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria, lying immediate ...

. Following he held several positions in the

Kobanî Canton Euphrates Region, formerly Kobanî Canton, ( ku, Herêma Firatê, ar, إقليم الفرات, syc, ܦܢܝܬܐ ܕܦܪܬ, translit=Ponyotho d'Prat) is the central of three original regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syr ...

until 2015. From 2015 and 2017, Mahmoud served as the director of the Semalka border crossing between the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and Syria. In 2017 he was appointed as the speaker of the YPG and in 2020 also as a commander of the headquarters of the

Syrian Democratic Forces , war = the Syrian Civil War , image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder , caption = Flag , active = 10 October 2015 – present , ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...

(SDF). As the spokesperson of the YPG and in support of a

UN resolution A United Nations resolution (UN resolution) is a formal text adopted by a United Nations (UN) body. Although any UN body can issue resolutions, in practice most resolutions are issued by the Security Council or the General Assembly. Legal sta ...

, he stressed that the YPG would hold a ceasefire of 30 days during the Turkish invasion of Afrin in February 2018. In June 2020, he offered an apology to the ENKS for the deaths caused by the forces of the YPG. In 2022, he voiced concern over an eventual Turkish attack onto Northern Syria.

Foreign relations

In March 2023, he visited the

French Senate The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' a ...

within a delegation of the

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabq ...

(AANES) where met with its vice-president Pierre Laurent. Mahmoud was also honored by the French Senate for his service during the fight against the

Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuri Mahmoud 1977 births Living people Democratic Union Party (Syria) politicians Syrian Democratic Forces People's Defense Units