FOLLOW UP GENEVA – Syria Daily: Geneva II Ends, Regime Bombings Soar
By Scott Lucas February 1, 2014 – eaworldview – The Geneva II conference adjourned on Friday with no significant advance, overtaken by the Assad regime’s escalating campaign of bombing in southern Syria. Almost 40 bombs fell on the Damascus suburb of Darayya yesterday, bringing the today to more than 70 since Wednesday. Airstrikes were also carried out on other areas in the south such as Zabadani and East Ghouta near Damascus, as well as in the northwest with attacks in Idlib Province.
KURDS & SYRIAN ARABS : A Rift in the National Coordination Body / WHAT IS KURDISH AUTONOMY ?
Aron Lund Friday, January 31, 2014 – It was never really a marriage made to last, and the alliance between Syria’s Arab nationalist and pacifist opposition and its most hardline Kurdish guerrilla movement may now be nearing a divorce.
When the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change (NCB), an umbrella movement of nonviolent Syrian opposition groups, was formed in June 2011, it was led by well-known dissidents from the prerevolutionary Arab opposition in Damascus. Many of them, like NCB leader Hassan Abdul Azim, had a background in an underground movement of Nasserites—followers of Egypt’s former president Gamal Abdel Nasser—while others were former Baathists or members of some minor Marxist group. And then there was the Democratic Union Party, known by the initials of its name in Kurdish, PYD. This Kurdish nationalist and leftist faction is based in the far north and controlled by Syrian supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group best known for its three decades of armed struggle in Turkey.
Support from Assyrians for West Kurdistan cantons
ANF – Qamishlo 01.02.2014 – The Assyrian Unity Party (AUP) and Assyrian Women’s Union (AWU) have greeted the democratic autonomous canton administrations in West Kurdistan and pledged their support.
MESOP’S MUST READ: Understanding Syria – From Pre-Civil War to Post-Assad
How drought, foreign meddling, and long-festering religious tensions created the tragically splintered Syria we know today. (Click bottom link for pictures & Graphics) – The Atlantic – By William R. POLK (Dec. 2013)
Now he offers an updated report on the grim prospects in Syria. Like his previous offerings, it is long and detailed—but as with the others, it offers both a coherent perspective and a myriad of facts and insights you will not find elsewhere. —James Fallows
Syria Daily: Geneva II — Opposition Leader “We Proved Regime’s Lack of Intent”
By Scott Lucas January 31, 2014 – As the Geneva II conference on Syria adjourns today without any significant achievement, Ahmed Jarba, the leader of the opposition delegation, has tried to claim a propaganda victory. Speaking to journalist Jenan Moussa, the head of the Syrian National Coalition has asserted that the “strategic and courageous” decision to attend the conference — which split the SNC and was opposed by insurgents — “enabled us to prove to the world that the regime does not recognize Geneva, or its clauses”:
Salih Muslim Questions Authority of NCC Statement
(ANF) 31.1.2014 – The co-president of the Democratic Unity Party (Partiya Yekîtiya Demokratîk-PYD), Salih Muslim, has called into question the authority of a statement issued in the name of the National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change (NCC), saying that it was not an official statement of the body in question.
TODAY’S MESOP OPINION : JOSHUA LANDIS ON GENEVA 2 RESULTS
Karen Leigh (@leighstream) – January 30, 2014
Q+A: Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma
On the opening day of peace talks in Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry came out stronger than predicted against the Syrian government, calling for regime change. Josh Landis, the editor of Syria Comment and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says Kerry’s strong stance likely came as a surprise to Bashar al-Assad’s delegation, which came into the conference with a sense of having been re-legitimized by the international community as a negotiating partner.
LINKSPARTEI MdB ANNETTE GROTH ERMÖGLICHT SYRISCHEM FOLTER-REGIME EINSICHT IN LISTE HUMANITÄRER HELFER
ANNETTE GROTH ? – Richtig, das ist die von der Mavi Marmara, die Schiffe chartern kann, wenn es nur nicht um Yarmouk geht !
Frage zum Thema Internationales
Sehr geehrte Frau Groth, MdB Linkspartei,
meine Frage an Sie als menschenrechtspolitische Sprecherin der Linken: Ist Ihnen nicht bekannt , dass es – anders als in Ihrer Anfrage ans AA “Aktivitäten deutscher Hilfsorganisationen in von bewaffneten syrischen Aufständischen kontrollierten Gebieten” impliziert – keine fest umrissenen Gebiete gibt, die vollständig unter der Kontrolle bewaffneter syrischer Aufständischer wären; allenfalls gibt es Gebiete, die vorläufig nicht mehr vom syrischen Regimes kontrolliert werden (das die Bevölkerung und die zivile Infrastruktur allerdings weiterhin bombardiert, humanitäre Hilfe von innen und außen verhindert).
Ist Ihnen nicht bekannt, dass in solchen Gebieten vor allem unbewaffnete Menschen versuchen, ihr Überleben zu sichern und dies mit dem Aufbau demokratischer Strukturen verbinden, während sie durch Angriffe des Regimes und zusätzlich durch reaktionäre islamistsche Gruppen wie Daash (ISIS) terrorisiert werden? Sind Ihnen die Wege und Möglichkeiten bekannt, die syrische Bevölkerung in den von der unmittelbaren Kontrolle durch das Regime befreiten Gebieten humanitär zu unterstützen?
Sind Sie, unterstellt es gäbe “von bewaffneten syrischen Aufständischen kontrollierte(n) Gebiete” oder solche, “die von islamistischen Milizen kontrolliert werden”, der Auffassung, daß der dort lebenden Bevölkerung keine humanitäre Hilfe zukommen sollte?
Warum sind Sie der Bitte des AA nicht nachgekommen, die Liste der Hilfsorganisationen, die mit Förderung durch Bundesministerien Hilfsmaßnahmen in Syrien leisten, vertraulich zu behandeln?
Ist Ihnen die extreme Gefährdung humanitärer Helfer, vor allem durch das syrische Regime, in allen Teilen Syriens, sowie die Tatsache nicht bekannt, dass das Regime ausdrücklich keine Hilfe zulässt, sondern sie als Verletzung der syrischen Souveränität betrachtet, dass daher humanitäre Hilfe nur über das Regime selber (mit der entsprechenden Einseitigkeit und Korruption bei der Vergabe) oder aber quasi insgeheim möglich ist?
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Harald Etzbach – 30. Januar 2014
MESOP TODAY’S COMMENTARIES – SYRIA
I) “Had Geneva truly been an attempt to resolve the Syrian stalemate, influential nations would have insisted on the regime’s adherence to the basic recommendations of the Geneva I talks in 2012, including the provision of humanitarian aid, the release of prisoners of conscience, and the cessation of Assad’s relentless air strikes on civilians,” writes Rime Allaf in the Guardian.
II) “So what does all this very preliminary evidence [data on torture practices] from Syria mean? First, that torture as a use of force is unlikely to go away, even as the regime consolidates its strength (including, potentially, in Islamist-held areas in the Kurdish north as opposition infighting continues). Second, torture is generally less prevalent in contested rural areas and is most common in urban areas under regime control,” writes Lionel Beehner in the Washington Post.
III) “Sunni Islamists, particularly Salafis, have used six main terms to describe those that support, are on the side of, or are fighting with the Assad regime: Nusayri, rafidha, majus, Safawi, Hizb al-Lat, and Hizb al-Shaytan. Their Shiite Islamist foes have also adopted their own titles for their Sunni opponents, some of the main terms include: Nasabi, Takfiri, Ummayad, and Wahhabi. For both sides, these terms serve to paint their enemies as nothing more than infidels bent on destroying Islam. Consequently, there can only be one punishment: Death,” writes Aaron Zelin and Phillip Smyth in Foreign Policy.
Syria to Miss Chemical Weapons Deadline & Other war crimes by Assad
MESOP 30-1-2014 – Less than 5 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons have been sent out of the country, and the government is expected to miss next week’s deadline to send all toxic agents abroad for destruction, Reuters reports. The first round of peace talks between the Assad regime and its opponents concludes in Geneva on Friday, but few issues have been resolved, and the greatest accomplishment appears to be getting both sides in the same room (NYT). Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch released satellite images showing thousands of demolished buildings in rebel-held areas, and the group characterized the destruction as collective punishment by the Syrian government (Guardian).
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