BDP Mersin deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü has recently delivered a speech on behalf of the United European Left to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe about the report on Syria prepared for the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy by rapporteur Björn von SYDOW, of the Sweden Socialist Group.

Kürkçü welcomed the report in general and thank the rapporteur for the rather balanced evaluation of an extremely complicated situation.

He went on saying: "We regret that the situation in Syria has confirmed our worries expressed during last year’s debate that it seems highly likely that the whole of Syria will soon turn into ruins, leading to a humanitarian disaster on the outskirts of Europe should events continue at their present pace. The facts and figures cited by the rapporteur depict an even worse panorama".

The Mersin deputy added that "Albeit it is praised by the rapporteur for having led to the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons via “threats of military strikes,” the “West” indeed bears a considerable part of the responsibility for the ongoing tragedy in this country".

"The peoples of Syria are paying the price of a miscalculated US-backed proxy war to realign forces in the Middle East. - said Kürkçü - Their plight stems not only from the Assad regime’s ruthlessness, but is an inevitable consequence of a revolt that was apparently encouraged by the US with no political programme or reliable leadership, never mind any political calculation of a possible outcome.” Unfortunately the Assembly too was not immune of this same myopic approach as it had anticipated in its April 2012 Res. 1878 that “Assad’s regime is coming to an end.”

This perspective of a near collapse of the regime has inevitably led the “West”, said Kürkçü  and added: "and particularly Ankara- turn a blind eye to or complicity in the atrocities and massacres by the so called “moderate” Free Syrian Army (FSO) at least 50 percent of which comprised of Al Qaida linked Al Nusra and other jihadists. Thus the Western military support channeled through Turkey’s borders to FSO for a forcible regime change was inevitably acquired by these ruthless reactionaries who have recently vowed to unite fight for the rule of sharia in Syria".

Pointing out that "as Mr. Björn von Sydow has carefully observed in his report that their increasing presence “fuels legitimate fears among the various religious and ethnic minorities about their future in a post-conflict Syria,” and thus pushes the Alevite, Christian, Jewish Arabs as well as secularists and Sunnite loyalists unite around Damascus as their sole guarantee against a possible genocide".

In this sense, said Kürkçü "we find the rapporteur’s recommendation to “support the emergence of a democratic, inclusive and stable state in Syria respectful of human rights and the rights of ethnic, cultural and religious minorities – rather than the mere fall of the current regime” very valuable in directing the Assembly on a new path to play a more constructive role in Syria".

Finally Kürkçü  drew the Assembly’s attention to Rojava, where, he said, "the Kurds of Syria having freed themselves from the Assad dictatorship as well as from the Al Qaida jihadists are building up a functional model for self-rule for the reunification of a secular, pluralistic, multi-ethnic and democratic Syria".