"Crisis of Civilization, Road Toward Democratic Modernism in ME" Conference issued its final statement

BEIRUT

After two days of the conference, which lasted from 17 to 18 of current November, which included 6 sessions, was concluded on Sunday by reading the final statement, which was read by the Master of Artistic Criticism holder and member of the Egyptian Council for the Kurdish Arab Dialogue Committee, Rajai Fayed, in which he said:

"At the invitation of the Newroz Social Cultural Association, the Miners Center for Studies and Research, the National Council of Western Armenians, the Permanent Congress of the Federation and the World Syriac Union Party, the Conference on Civilization and the Road toward Modernity in the Middle East was held in the Lebanese capital Beirut on 17-18 November 2018.In the presence and participation of politicians, academics, intellectuals, women's and youth organizations and representatives of political parties from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Europe. This was a small model of ethnic, national, religious and sectarian pluralism, and was a complement for the first conference of this context, which was held in Sulaymaniyah city in 2016 under the title of "Peace and Stability in the Middle East in the Thought of Abdullah Ocalan."

On this occasion, we would like to thank the beginning of the Lebanese authorities, headed by the President of the Republic, for hosting and facilitating the conference and for cooperating with us in the success of our Conference.

During this two-day conference, several key themes were discussed, focusing initially on the reasons for the crises that our region has experienced historically and in the past, in order to be able to discuss ways of solving and how to enable it on the ground. The conference sessions were attended by important democratic discussions among the participants in their various orientations, which enriched the conference's axis.

On this basis, the participants reached a common vision on many topics related to the conference in terms of the reasons and ways of resolving outstanding issues in the region.

We have a great historical legacy, but we lack a right vision of our history that will enable us to recognize our current, turbulent reality. Therefore, we urgently need to have a good historical awareness and a fair, impartial and critical reading of history.

The oppressed forces and peoples fought great resistance over the years against injustice, repression and marginalization. History was not only a day of the masters and the dominant powers. It was the history of the longstanding resistance that earned humanity great moral and material value in this field.

The nation state was and continues to be the cause and consequence of the dispersion and destruction of the region because of its exclusion of national, ideological, ethnic, cultural and other social identities.

Women's freedom is a fundamental issue that must be addressed with a radical strategic vision for building a free democratic society in the Middle East.

The reality of the bankruptcy of the central state in the Middle East, therefore, the people and forces urgently need an alternative political system that is consistent with pluralism and guarantees the fundamental rights and freedoms of all ethnicities, cultures, peoples and identities in the region and stems from the right to self-management in a democratic, fair, progressive and civil.

Our region needs a new intellectual system that adopts the nation's democratic project based on co-existence and peaceful rather than nationalistic intolerance, respect for religious beliefs and religions rather than religious fanaticism.

In addition to these axes, the conferees stressed that there is a war of annihilation that affects the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel, and the Kurdish people reach the hands of the Turkish state, which not only denies the existence of the Kurds, but also denies the identities of other peoples such as the Assyrian, Syriac, Armenian and Arab peoples. Political and physical policies that violate all international human rights instruments and even rise to the level of war crimes against humanity. It is imperative that we combat these systematic hostile practices.

The participants also focused on the situation of the leader and the free thinker in his prison, the leader Abdullah Ocalan, and stressed that he is a struggler and a Middle East thinker at the same time. His detention by the Turkish state in solitary confinement for nearly 20 years,and preventing his family and lawyers to communicate with him, is a flagrant violation of human rights and an order contrary to all international conventions and treaties on human rights in general and the rights of political prisoners in particular.

The participants called the Amnesty International Organization, human rights organizations and all relevant international institutions to put pressure on the Turkish authorities to lift the severe isolation imposed on the leader and thinker Abdullah Ocalan as a people and cause. They stressed their demand for the freedom of Ocalan and the freedom of all political prisoners, as well as the importance of joint action.

In this context, the participants called for adherence to reconciliation to end the problems through dialogue and peace in the region. They welcomed the dialogue on the democratic nation's project, its development, its maturation and its adaptation to the specificities of each component and country.

Finally, the participants reached a common vision that we all urgently need to convene such conferences periodically in the various countries of the Middle East because they are of great importance in enabling convergence between different viewpoints and visions on the basis of mutual dialogue aimed at charting the possible solution, intellectual and joint process aimed at building a democratic Middle East.

On this basis, it was agreed to form a follow-up committee to follow up the outcomes of the conference. The committee will expand its circle to include as many as possible all the social forces in the region including intellectuals, academics and politicians in order to adopt the idea of coexistence and culture of tolerance and acceptance of the other among different peoples.

In the end, the audience stressed that resorting to war, oppression, exploitation, colonialism and occupation was not a solution at any time. Dialogue and joint action to formulate political solutions emanating from the will of the local actors is the best way to resolve the issues.

Our two-day conference ended successfully and fruitfully.

Long live peoples fraternity

Long live the democratic Middle East

A.H

ANHA