obviously, there's this loose arrangement in northern syria between the kurds it is said and the regime in dpam as can you say and, therefore-- damascus and, therefore, by extension with moscow. it is easily, potentially, even though you can't prove it, to suggest that the russians might want the kurds to have this power and autonomy as revenge against the turkish government and certainly relations between ankara and moscow have got so bad, this can only make things worse still >>> thank you very much for joining us from gaziantep with that update. we're going to speak to a phd researcher at the free university of brussels and that is where he is joining us. firstly, give us your take on the peace talks taking place now in geneva and what you expected to come out of them and specifically with in announcement that we hear from a senior spokesman for syria's kurds saying that the group are preparing to declare a federal system in the area that is controlled. what do you make of the timing of that? >> let me put this in perspective. in late 1980s and early 90s, the p.k.k. saw an opportunity to est