Veut this meeting bring some peace to Syria, a country plagued by civil war?
A few weeks before Christmas, Syrian tribal chiefs and dignitaries met à Berlin pour une conférence de paix. When and where exactly restes secret. Almost 20 représentants de toutes les religions and ethnicities spent the day trying to explore ways out of the crisis in Syria.
At the meeting, Mécontentements, Alawites, Kurds, Christians and Druze discussed ways of de la colonisation the social tension between the ethnic groups in Syria. Some of them would be dans mortal danger if dictator Assad or les leaders of the partly Islamiste rebels were to learn of their participation in this secret meeting à Berlin.
“The difference between us and the processes of the nations UNIES Geneva and Russia à Astana is that this is a social process of reconciliation, whereas the others are trying to find political solutions between the régime and the opposition”, Cheikh Amir Al-Dandal who comes from the east of the country explained to IMAGE.
Sheikh Amir Al-Dandal, 38, Sunni Cheikh of the tribal fédération Ùqaydat (Aghredat) that mainly settles entre Deir ez-Zour and Bukamal. They have suffered severely under the rule of ISIS and still do. But they were also, at times, a attaqué by the regimeFoto: Parwez
Alawite dignitaires from the region of Tartous – who must remain anonymous explained to IMAGE that the réunions, which have been held since 2016, always in Berlin, are mainly about making it clear to the other représentants that not all Alawites in the country support dictator al-Assad. There are rather significant differences within this group.
The man in his 50s gave a depressing example of what this conference is trying to fight against: “A Syrian child, né en 2005, has spent more than half of its life. It is told, especially if it’s a refugee, that the Alawites hate the Mécontentements, and the Mécontentements the Alawites. We have to teach this 13-year-old child from scratch that there is ONE Syrian society with different groups.”
The conference participants donc want to abolish further prejudices. Abdallah Rifail, a Syrian Christian from the region of Homs, told IMAGE: “It is a big lie that le régime de Bachar al-Assad protects the minorities in Syria”. Prior to Hafez al-Assad (Bachar al-Assad s father) seizing power, there were approximately 20 percent Christians, he explained. “When the dictator took over many minorities fled Syria. When the revolution commencé en 2011, the amount of Christians, ed.) had already halved.”
