The [democratic Syrian] federalism we talk about is not a geographical line. Maybe tomorrow it's going to be expanded to Raqqa, and other places. … Maybe even the people of Daraa will join.

Interview by Wladimir van Wilgenburg, "This is a new Syria, not a new Kurdistan", Middle East Eye, 21 March 2016 – quoted by Harriet Allsopp and Wladimir van Wilgenburg, The Kurds of Northern Syria: Governance, Diversity and Conflicts, London: I.B. Tauris, 2019, p. 83.