NORTH AND EAST SYRIA: Democratic Autonomous Administration receives government delegations from Austria and Finland

ZALIN (QAMISHLI), Syria – In recent days, two European government delegations have met with the Department of Foreign Relations of the Democratic Autonomous Administration in Zalin (Qamishli). An Austrian delegation included foreign affairs MPs from the ruling coalition of the Green party and Austrian People’s Party, and professor of political sciences at the University of Vienna Thomas Schmidinger.

They were received by the Department of Foreign Relations Co-Chairs Abdul Karim Omar and Dania Ramadan, and the DAA’s envoy in Europe Mazkin Ahmed. The two sides discussed many issues of the region, including the necessary inclusion of the DAA in the Syrian political process, resolution of the Syrian crisis in accordance with international resolutions, and Austria’s role in contributing to this resolution.

The two sides also discussed the ongoing day-to-day violations committed by the Turkish occupation army in the various regions and cities of North and East Syria, and the need for pressure from the international community to stop these attempts to destabilize the DAA. The two sides put special attention on the file of the refugee camps, as well as the file of ISIS members detained in DAA prisons, and the need for an international tribunal to help convict these ISIS detainees.

The Austrian delegation’s visit came days after a Finnish government delegation visited the Foreign Relations department. The delegation was led by Finland’s envoy to the United Nations, its special envoy to Syria, and head of the Consular Assistance Unit of the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

Bot delegations reiterated their support for the Democratic Autonomous Administration and the need for all European countries to provide support to the DAA.