Apart from the accomplices of the Assad regime and the civilian populations still being targeted in the North and East of Syria, all Syrians are happy with the liberation of Syria thanks to the offensive of the Syrian rebels and the support of many Syrian communities who were only waiting for a signal to participate in the liberation.
After 58 years of one of the most ferocious dictatorships, and not 13 or 24 years as suggested by the Western media, Syrians needed at least 48 hours to breathe and share their infinite happiness, their cries, their joy, but also their tears of relief and sorrow too long contained.
Many abroad have not respected this need, continuing to infantilize Syrians and scorn their democratic and secular aspirations, constantly brandishing the Islamist threat in front of our faces since the start of the rebel offensive (which we refuse to reduce to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, because hundreds of other factions have joined the operation).
We didn’t need to be told. We were among the first to suffer this threat, which has been with us for years, but we also know that jihadist criminal groups didn’t just spring up. They were born out of the chaos produced by decades of colonization, armed invasion and indiscriminate bombing.
Having celebrated, Syria’s progressive forces must now act fast and not relax too early. The threats of a reactionary and fundamentalist backlash are real.
That’s why we want to share a few essential demands with you, to be widely disseminated within ALL Syrian communities and passed on to those who will ensure the political transition in Syria.
We must:
END THE VIOLENCE
- Put an immediate end to all military intervention in the areas of Idleb, Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir Ez-Zor and Hasakeh and implement ceasefire agreements between rebel forces and YPG/SDF armed forces;
- Condemn and put a definitive end to foreign bombing raids on Syrian soil;
- Demand the liberation of Syrian territories and civilian communities held hostage by neighboring states and armed groups serving their interests, in particular Israel and Turkey in the Golan, Quneitra, West Damascus, Idleb, Aleppo, Raqqa and Hasakeh regions;
- Disarm non-Syrian armed fighters and ask them to leave the country, return home or apply for asylum in Syria, to be considered in the light of serious investigations into the crimes committed by the armed groups to which they belonged;
- Guarantee access to Syrian territory for humanitarian NGOs and journalists;
IMPLEMENT A RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PROCESS:
- Protect and analyze the archives of the Assad regime’s security services, then make them available for consultation by those concerned, to enable grieving and reparation for the crimes, as well as prosecution of the perpetrators;
- Protect and allow full access to the lists of detainees and victims of the Assad regime for the families of victims searching for missing persons;
- List those complicit in slanderous denunciations and protect their identity to prevent personal vengeance and ensure fair judicial procedures, which may involve transformative and restorative, rather than punitive, modes of justice;
- Arrest and detain in humanitarian conditions all army, security service or armed militia personnel suspected of direct involvement in the commission of crimes against civilians and war crimes;
- Prevent any public humiliation or execution, and initiate justice processes that respect international conventions against the death penalty;
- Enable the establishment of alternative systems of conflict resolution and justice, allowing defendants to choose under which justice system they wish to be tried, while prohibiting the use of penalties involving corporal punishment or the death penalty;
GUARANTEE POLITICAL TRANSITION:
- Prevent the establishment of a political regime based on religious or ethnic affiliations, to prevent a sectarian division of Syria;
- Prevent the use of symbols of armed groups, as well as flags associated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and other Islamist groups, in the public institutions of the new political regime;
- Organize a political transition to a confederal regime allowing egalitarian and non-segregative representation of the different ethno-religious communities of Syrian society that represent at least 1% of Syrian society: Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, Christian Arabs, Druze, Alawites, Kurds and Assyrians. Ethnic communities representing less than 1% of the Syrian population must be given proportional representation in order to ensure respect for their specific identities and related rights: Turkmen, Circassians, Bedouins, Armenians, Mizrahim Jews, Yezids, Palestinians, Romanis, Aramaic/Syriacs;
- Freeze all cooperation with a neighboring state that does not guarantee full freedom for populations belonging to at least one of the above-mentioned Syrian communities;
- Restore full and unrestricted political and religious freedoms, as well as freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of the press;
- Guarantee the freedom and protection of the rights of women and sexual minorities;
Without the implementation of all these demands, the self-determination of Syrians is not guaranteed, and the resurgence of authoritarian powers is to be feared. We must mobilize en masse to prevent history repeating itself and autocratic or reactionary ambitions compromising the democratic and secular Syrian revolution.
We must therefore loudly proclaim our solidarity with the Palestinian, Lebanese and Kurdish peoples in the face of oppression and unjustified violence. It’s not a question of supporting armed groups who carry their voice, but of sending a clear message to our brother peoples and to civilians who don’t deserve to suffer the repercussions of colonial wars.
We only want peace and democracy in Syria and the surrounding region.
Interstices-Fajawat Initiative