bhzad janOnce again, after a series of meetings in Kazakhian capital, Nursultan (Astana), and for the fourteenth time, the guarantor countries met with the participation of representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition affiliated with Turkey, to end the meeting with a set of consensuses that could not represent a solution to end the crisis of the Syrians and their sufferings, and it is not sufficient to achieve security and stability in Syria, especially with the guarantor parties continuation to try to liquidate the Syrian issue in a way that serves the interests of the regional countries participating in the conference without regard to the real participation of representatives of the Syrian people or the representation of the will of the Syrians, where the international community, especially Astana guarantors and the international envoy, Biderson, left the issue of representing the Syrian political parties in the political process, it is no longer possible to talk about a political process after the crisis was reduced to a “constitutional process” that excluded Syrian active political parties on the ground, foremost of which are representatives of the Syrian Democratic Council and the true representatives of the Kurdish people, caving in condition by The Turkish guarantor in Astana.
The final statement of Astana meeting dated 10/11 / December 2019 focused on the situation in north and east Syria, and in the second item, the charge of separation was directed to the existing Self-Administration project, its accusation of undermining Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and threatening the national security of neighboring countries. This negative position towards the political solution and towards the representatives of north and east Syria is an expression of the lack of the will of a political solution among the guarantors, dealing with the Syrian file, especially in north and east Syria, as a security deal and resorting to military solutions that undermined Syrian sovereignty in Idlib and Afrin through the crimes of the Turkish army, who also involved directly in Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad in displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, undermining their security and stability, carrying out field executions against activists and civilians, and destroying schools, places of worship, and hospitals. The statement clearly and explicitly sought to give the Turkish side more protection to continue committing these crimes under the heading of “applying terms of Adana Security Agreement ” signed between Turkey and Syria in the late last century.
The most discontent in this statement is the affirmation of the fight against ISIS, which could not be defeated militarily without the sacrifices of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and their positive cooperation with various international parties, foremost of which is the International Coalition to Combat Terrorism. The Astana guarantors’ ignore of this fact and this achievement of the SDF will not change the truth, and it will not help to exonerate Turkey from its continuous support for terrorists during the years of the crisis, providing all facilities for their passage to Syria across its borders and protecting the most dangerous terrorist leaders and members by joining and organizing them into military factions of ” Syrian National Army, ” who carried out war crimes against humanity during the Turkish army’s occupation of Ras Al-Ain and Tal Abyad and their countryside. The statement’s neglect of the declared Turkish plan to resettle a million Syrian refugees in the areas of Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad raises many concerns and anxiety about the situation regarding the position from demographic change plans that Turkey does not hesitate to justify and announce the start of their implementation.
The representatives of Self-Administration and the Democratic Syria Council have committed throughout the years of the Syrian crisis to adopting the Syrian-Syrian dialogue and affirmed their commitment to the national solutions to the Syrian crisis, and expressed their willingness to cooperate with the various active parties in the crisis with a view to setting the Self-Administration project within a national course that serves national unity and sovereignty, and they refuted through their national initiatives all Turkish allegations that aimed to fight the administration’s project by making numerous and contradictory accusations against it at the same time. The Syrian government also does not have a vision for the solution, has rejected any political dialogue so far and has not had the will to resolve, and in order to justify all of this, it does not hesitate in the words of its representative, Bashar Ja’afari, to deny the existence of a crisis that must be resolved through dialogue and accuses Self-Administration of secession despite the recent military understanding that was sponsored by Russia between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian army with the aim of protecting the borders from the Turkish occupation.
We in the Syrian Democratic Council reject the accusations contained in the Astana statement and confirm that the attempt to isolate and exclude representatives of north and east Syria is incompatible with the demand for unity and sovereignty of Syria, we affirm our commitment to the Syrian national solution and the need to our participation in any forum dealing with the Syrian crisis. We call upon the UN envoy to review this issue on basis of interests of the Syrian people. We find that Moscow is ready to play an intermediary role between the parties, calling upon it to reconsider its position towards the project of Self-Administration and to cooperate with the international community to process the imbalance imposed by agendas of regional countries at the expense of the security and stability of the Syrian people.
The Syrian Democratic Council
December 13, 2019
MSD