31/08/2020

RUSSIA: Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Syrian Democratic Council and Popular Will Party

MOSCOW – The Syrian Democratic Council delegation on a diplomatic visit in Moscow signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the communist People’s Will Party (Narodnaya Volya Party or PWP). The MoU, signed by SDC’s Îlham Ahmed and PWP Party Secretary Kadri Jamil puts forward the two parties’ vision for the political solution in Syria.

The MoU calls for a united but decentralized Syria with official recognition of all components that make up Syria society. This seems to be a direct reference and rejection of the current official name of Syria, Syrian Arab Republic. The two parties’ MoU sends a clear message that all military solutions to reconquer Syria have been tried and failed, and that Syria’s Baath Regime needs to come to the negotiating table with an political inclusive and decentralized solution with associated constitutional rights for all components. In return the MoU says that “the new Syria is a united Syria, in land and people” and “the Syrian army is the general national institution to which carrying weapons is restricted.”

The SDC delegation included Sanharib Barsoum, the Co-Chair of the Syriac Union Party (SUP) in Syria. The SUP is a founding member of the Democratic Autonomous Administration and the MoU makes direct reference to the constitutional recognition of the national rights of the Syriacs, and all Syrian components.

Image: Russia Today

On 31 August, the SDC and PWP leaders met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presented their MoU to the Minister.

 

********** FULL TEXT OF MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING **********

 The current reality and the crisis that Syria is going through in its tenth year confirms that it is a structural crisis added to the complexities of foreign intervention and of betting on it, and that all security and military options were doomed to failure. Faced with this tragic reality and suffering that Syrians are experiencing, from killing, arresting, kidnapping, displacement and miserable living conditions, and in the face of the war of attrition that has destroyed our people’s infrastructure and social structure, it has become necessary for all democratic patriotic forces to move to joint action to stop this tragedy and this destruction. And based on the historical responsibility in the context of the catastrophic conditions that the region and our country, Syria, are going through, and in order to achieve the comprehensive democratic, political, socio-economic change, People’s Will Party and Syrian Democratic Council (MSD), and based on recent bilateral meetings, as well as on the basis of previous intellectual and practical intersections, have reached an understanding on the following basic points:

First: The new Syria is a united Syria, in land and people. It is a democratic state that achieves equal citizenship and social justice. It is proud of all its components (Arabs, Kurds, Syriac Assyrians, Turkmen, Armenians, Circassians) and sees in its variety of identities an enriching factor that strengthens its unity and social fabric integrity. Its constitution is democratic, achieving an advanced formula for the relationship between decentralization, on the one hand, which guarantees the people to exercise their direct authority in the regions, and achieves self-sufficiency, equitable distribution of wealth and development throughout the country, and centralization in the basic affairs (foreign affairs, defense, and economy), on the other hand.

Second: The political solution is the only way out from the Syrian crisis, and it is based on the sovereignty of the Syrian people in all its components and the right of this people to self-determination, through dialogue. In this context, the two parties support and work for the full implementation of UNSCR 2254, including the implementation of the Geneva Communiqué and the inclusion of the other opposition platforms into the Syrian political process, including Syrian Democratic Council, as this resolution is a tool to enforce the right of the Syrian people to fully restore the Syrian sovereignty, and work to end all sanctions and all forms of siege imposed on the Syrian people; to end the politicization of humanitarian aids; and to end all foreign occupations and forms of external intervention along with the various bearers thereof, leading to the departure of all foreign forces from the Syrian soil.

Third: The hoped-for state of equal citizenship in Syria stresses the Syrian societal diversity, and the commitment to find a just, democratic solution to the Kurdish issue in Syria in accordance with international covenants and declarations and the constitutional recognition of their rights, and the national rights of the Assyrian Syriacs and all the Syrian components within the territorial unity and integrity, and sovereignty of Syria.

Fourth: The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria is an objective necessity and a societal need related to the conditions of the country and the needs of the region which have been produced by the current crisis, and it is important to benefit from the experience of the Autonomous Administration, its advantages and disadvantages, as a form of people’s authority in the regions which should be developed at the general national level, and within the framework of consensus between Syrians, in a way that strengthens the unity of the Syrian territories, the sovereignty of its state and its general administrative system

Fifth: The Syrian army is the general national institution to which carrying weapons is restricted, and it does not interfere with politics. Syrian Democratic Forces, which have seriously contributed to the war on terror and are still working to promote coexistence, should be involved within the Syrian army institution on the basis of formulas and mechanisms to be agreed upon.

According, the two parties agreed upon enhancing mutual communication and coordination at the general political level and at the level of direct action; the two parties stress the need for joint action to ensure the participation of Syrian Democratic Council in the political process in all its details, and on top of which is the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

Moscow, 31 / 8 / 2020

On behalf of
Syrian Democratic Council,
President of the Executive Committee
Ms. Ilham Ahmed

On behalf of
People’s Will Party,
Member of Presidium of the Central Council,
Party Secretary
Dr. Kadri Jamil