Allosh: Astana ended, Turkey's role is temporary

NEWS DESK

Hawar news agency (ANHA) held an interview with the independent Syrian opponent and former member of the Communist Labor Party Hossam Allosh about the situation in Syria in the political and military fields, especially on the fate of Idlib.

Attention is heading towards Idlib these days. Some expect that the decisiveness in Idlib would start a new phase in the course of the Syrian crisis. What is your view on this issue?

Idlib may be the last episode of the tragedy of Syria. Will the military option be the only realistic option, or are there other options? Will Idlib be the last trip of the displacement of the Syrian people, or will it lead to more blood and destruction? It seems that this is what will happen because the mind is still absent in the Syrian political painting. In this filthy and destructive battle launched from inside with the support of the outside, there is no horizon for a conciliatory and political solution that makes Idlib to avoid a great tragedy, but when will it occur? In my opinion, the military option has become a reality through the large crowds and what is happening on the ground; arresting those who want reconciliation in the armed terrorist rank. Money, power and arms still control the fate of this area. The time of the unwanted military has ended in Syria.

We, the patriotic democrats, especially the Communists are unable to impose agendas or a roadmap to save the country. The ball is rolling and the military decisiveness has been being preparing for. In my opinion, the decisiveness is coming, but not at once as it will start on two axes. An  axis to open the line of Hama-Aleppo road as a strategic and economic necessity for Syria, and the line of isolating Lattakia, Jabal al-Akrad and al-Turkmen from Idlib through the axis of Jisr ash-Shugur. This is the plan of the Syrian regime and the Russians leaving the conflict inside Idlib between the internationally recognized terrorist mass (Jabhet al-Nusra) and the Turkish-backed movement. Those mercenaries, who formed the so-called National Liberation Front, do not differentiate from Jabhet al-Nusra in their Islamic radical program.

In the light of these possibilities, what will be the fate of Astana agreements, especially the agreements on de-escalation zones?

Astana is part of a Russian strategy aimed at finding a period of time for de-escalation zones. The Russian strategy is clear to all of us. It wants the Syrian territories to be returned to the regime; in other words, there would be no areas controlled by the armed forces or even the Turks. This strategy needed tactics and intermediate steps as they have given the Turks bribes to keep them away from the American axis and save the area from bloody conflicts so Astana was a transitional stage that had its objectives, and its historic role has ended. Now, Astana is dying and de-escalation zones’ role has ended. The next step is to extend the Syrian sate's sovereignty over the entire Syrian territory. Where will Turkey be at this stage? May it have a temporary role to create more conditions for the restoration of the entire territory of the Syrian homeland; that is, Idlib in the end will be a disarmed zone.

Turkey occupies many North Syria's areas, what will be the fate of these areas in the next stage?

For Turkey, North Syria and the areas occupied by the Turkish state, including Afrin, al-Bab, Azaz, and Jarablus, I think these areas are within the strategic plans to be returned to the Syrian territory, and I mean the Syrian state, not the political authority in Syria. We all believe in the Syrian state, and we are keen about the Syrian state as institutions, land, language and cultures. Power has usurped the state. We, in our democratic political struggle, must restore the state to serve the diverse issues of our people.

What are your expectations regarding the political future of Syria?

I am optimistic about the political and the military future of Syria. We hoped that Idlib's fate would not be like the fate of the other Syrian cities that suffered from tragedy, destruction, displacement and murder. The national democratic forces in Syria are always against war, violence, sectarianism, foreign intervention and weapons which holds us a great responsibility, the responsibility to restore the unity of national democratic action through a democratic national pole, and a joint program of all the national democratic forces that are interested in Syria's future.

This country does not live without pluralism, democracy, decentralization and secularism so our struggle now is concentrated with the retreat of the military operations and the military presence of the militants. Now, the political action is progressing and this requires a national and democratic unity of work and to hold dialogues with the regime to formulate the future of Syria through a new social contract. This democrat pole will in the future be a political figure in the political life. We and our comrades in the Syrian Democratic Council, many intellectuals and the political parties in Syria have formed a follow-up committee for a Syrian-Syrian dialogue within the framework of the Syrian political opposition. We hope that this would be a step forward in this regard. 

(T/S)

ANHA