By Vestnik Kavkaza
Last Sunday, Syrian opposition forces held talks in the capital of Qatar, Doha. An agreement on establishing the Syrian National Coalition of the Opposition and Revolutionary Forces was signed. The coalition has to represent the interests of all opponents of the current president of Syria, Bashar Assad. Yesterday the representative of the Syrian National Council in Russia, Mahmud Al Khamza, who participated in the consultations, conducted a press conference in Moscow where he told about his view on the situation in Syria.
For more than 20 months the revolution, as we call it, continues. Rebellions and protests began absolutely peacefully and spontaneously. Unfortunately, the Syrian authorities – and it characterizes their mentality – began to use force, shoot at people, and people began to die from the very beginning. Bashar Assad admitted in his speech that no armament was used before Ramadan. Almost seven month only peaceful protests took place. But the authorities used force and people died: the number of victims was growing day after day. Then, the Syrian Free Army began to be formed as soldiers and officers deserted; they didn’t want to shoot at people, and those who didn’t shoot were killed by the government. At first groups without armament were formed, then, they got armaments. The authorities used weapon cruelly – they launched troops: army, tanks, artillery, they bombed towns and cities, destroyed districts. Today Aleppo is constantly being bombed by military aircrafts. It is a real war against people, which was declared by the Syrian regime.
In this situation people had to defense themselves. Armed groups called the Syrian Free Army began to grow. Of course it is not an organized regular army. The title is loud, but in fact small armed groups are acting in local areas. They had one goal – to protect the protesting people. In recent time they started to conduct military operations against the military forces of the regime – against special services, military groups of official powers. At the moment, the Syrian Free Army controls at least 60-70% of the Syrian territory. Bashar Assad and his army control separate place, especially cities. They probably feel free in some cities in day time, but at night these special services move away, as the Syrian Free Army acts there. Almost all north of the Syria is free, local councils and controlling points at the boundary with Turkey and Iraq appeared there. They are in hands of rebels. The Syrian regime took the republican troops from Homs and middle districts to Damascus. They feel how the ring is tightening around Damascus. The Syrian Free Army is preparing for a big operation in Damascus.
The opposition began to act after 40-50 years of prohibition on political actions: when there was no freedom, one party, one president, and one opinion existed. It resembles Soviet period, but our case is worse, it is a deformed model of Stalin’s model. In fact the opposition woke up for the first time. But the opposition commanders, leaders, activists were abroad. They started to cooperate, conduct conferences, tried to find common grounds. Ahead of the revolution Syrians were afraid of each other, they didn’t talk about politics. They said: “We will talk about everything except for politics.” And suddenly they are allowed talk about politics. At first people were shy, but then they stopped fearing. It is one of reasons for which the opposition didn’t have a solid body for administration. These were objective difficulties.
The Syrian National Council was established a year ago. It is the biggest opposition group which presents wide layers of the opposition and people. Representatives of Damascus Declaration, left, secular, and moderate Islamists, Kurds are involved in it. The Muslim Brotherhood is also a part of it, they have stated on their political plan that they want to build civil democratic multi-side society in Syria and support the main motto of the revolution – to overthrow Bashar Assad’s regime. Representatives of Kurds, Assyrians, various tribes, liberal groups, and independent people are involved in it. The Syrian National Council is a wide spectrum of the opposition.
Speaking about the meeting in Qatar, I should say that reconstruction of the Syrian National Council began, and it was confirmed at the conference in Doha on November 4-7. There was a conference of the Syrian National Council – all members of the Council, 425 people were present there. They welcomed new members of the Council who are representatives of the revolution movement in Syria. It is thought that Syrian rebels and revolutionists are poorly presented in the Council. The squad of the Council was renewed. Now it includes representatives of 24 political groups and 32 revolution committees inside Syria. 150 new members were accepted, and about 40 people were dismissed from the Council due to various reasons: political and organizational. The Council includes women, about 15%, no less than 40 women were present at the conference. Revolution councils and movements take about 30-33% of the current Council. These were conditions of the conference’s conduction.
The new charter of the organization was adopted, the new system of elections was discussed, as well as the political activity of the former authorities, plans for the future, a transactional period and so on. The Syrian National Council initiated consolidation of the opposition and establishing of the timely government after getting international support and guarantees.
The main thing was defining major principles: no dialogue with Bashar Assad and his team – it is the most important; no dialogue with the regime under this team; we stand for a dialogue with representatives of all groups, including the government, but only if they are not involved into murders and corruption.
The conference of the Syrian National Council has great importance. This is the second conference; the first was in Tunisia. Now we have an opportunity to discuss organizational and political aspects. People could speak freely and elect democratically. We have an opportunity to express our view and give our vote freely, which was absent in Syria during 50 years.
