The SFM Paper for the SDP

On Thursday, 18/07/2024, the Syrian Future Movement (SFM) presented a working paper at the meeting of the Syrian Democratic Powers (SDP), which included the following:

First, the Syrian Future Movement (SFM) thanks its friends in the Syrian Democratic Powers (SDP) for accepting the invitation to hold the meeting.

This is a coordination meeting focusing on two main points:

1. Clarifying the current situation and reading it objectively before reaching an agreed stance, which might result in unified positions. This point is further divided into:

• The current Syrian reality, which is at a new turning point after a period of relative stagnation:
  • In the south, the civilian movement in Sweida, which the Syrian regime tries to bog down in details and boredom, and attempts to drag it into armed conflict (its playing field), thus necessitating our supportive stance and appreciation for its continuity. There is also the movement in Daraa, where Iran seeks to infiltrate through the Kanaker area and ignite family and tribal conflicts, placing a significant burden on nationalists to play a larger role in countering these efforts.
  • In the northeast, the Autonomous Administration is seeking to impose its hegemony, linking the region to the PKK and Abdullah Öcalan’s ideology, thus provoking Turkey and thwarting all reconciliation efforts among Syrians, such as the proposal supported by the Syrian Future (SFM) Movement known as the “West German Experience”.
  • In the northwest, there is a peaceful movement in the HTS areas, especially in Binnish, where HTS attempts to monopolize all activities and subjugate civilians without allowing any dissenting voices. Additionally, the opposition-controlled areas (the National Army and the coalition) are suffering from economic collapse, lack of services, insecurity, and fragmentation within opposition institutions due to tribal and familial quotas. Furthermore, there is public anger over Turkey’s continued practices of tightening restrictions on Syrians in Turkey and forcibly deporting them under the guise of voluntary return.
• The external reality affecting the Syrian scene, which is evident in several issues:
  • The Arab rapprochement with the Syrian regime and the continuation of the step-by-step initiative despite all obstacles and the absence of a coercive element.
  • The Turkish normalization with the Syrian regime and the rapprochement calls, pursued by both the Turkish government and opposition, indicating a dangerous phase that could threaten the revolution’s gains if we do not take a resistant stance.
  • The tightening restrictions on refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, and Egypt, and Western calls to create safe zones in Syria for the forced return of Syrian migrants without waiting for a political solution.
  • The consistent European and American stance of not recognizing any normalization steps with the Syrian regime, but without legal or political opposition to the normalizing states, and the intense efforts to stop the anti-normalization law in America by international, UN, and Syrian figures.
  This is the current Syrian reality, which, despite its different facets, agrees on:
  • Economic collapse.
  • Failure of any political initiative to end the war and transition towards a national founding council or what the Syrian Future Movement (SFM) has called in one of its research papers “Syrian Taif,” moving Syria from the phase of fragmentation and internal-external military conflict to political competition and state-building.

1. The stance that should be adopted by the Syrian Democratic Powers (SDP):

• There is no doubt that the national forces are suffering from paralysis, laziness, and a lack of practical direction, focusing on issues unrelated to the core of the tragic Syrian political situation, and getting bogged down in details, seemingly intended to distract us from engaging with crucial issues.
• The narrative in the first point leads us to categorize the important and more important issues, with Turkish normalization and the tightening of restrictions on Syrians in Turkey being the top priorities due to their direct and strong impact on the Syrian situation. Hence, the Syrian Future Movement (SFM) presents its vision for what can be done here at the meeting of the Syrian Democratic Powers (SDP) to discuss and come up with proposals with you:
  • Creating specific messages and statements clarifying our stance on Turkish normalization and the tightening of restrictions on Syrians in Turkey.Sending these messages and statements specifically to:
    a. The American Republican Party + Donald Trump’s office + Trump’s campaign, simultaneously, with the Syrian Future Movement (SFM) leveraging its close relationship with them to help deliver the message to the right place.
    b. A message to the National Coalition as a Syrian institution (our negative stance towards it does not mean severing all ties), based on our rejection of the idea of complete institutional demolition but rather striving to reform it as much as possible! Requesting the Coalition to move its institutions to a second country or return to the Syrian interior (which it should have done long ago), and to leave the headquarters outside Syria, while opening communication channels with all friendly countries of the Syrian opposition, and expanding the Coalition to include all active forces on the ground (a primary condition for its continuation as the head of the revolution and opposition institutions). Additionally, opening communication channels with the northeast and the south, in both Daraa and Sweida, and striving to bring these forces into the National Coalition.
    c. Opening communication channels with the dignity arena in northern Syria immediately, considering it the influential internal carrier for the reform we seek, and showing our support for the dignity arena in the north, striving to engage with it and guide it nationally and democratically. The Syrian Future Movement (SFM)’s political office issued a supporting and guiding statement for the northern movement titled “On the Demands of the Revolutionary Street in Northern Syria,” issued on 10-07-2024, under the number (M.S 04-07-24).
    d. Sending a carefully worded message to the Turkish government and Turkish opposition, encouraging them to protect the Syrian people in Turkey, and clarifying our opposition to any idea of normalization with the Syrian regime, considering it a threat to Turkish interests and Syrian-Turkish relations (specifically addressing the Erbakan and Davutoğlu parties).
    e. Sending a message to the Arab League, emphasizing the democratic Powers (SDP)’ commitment to the Arab embrace, and the importance of the Arab League’s role as a significant weight in working towards a Syrian settlement, not in supporting the Syrian regime, and our rejection of any normalization process between Arab countries, whether individually or collectively, with the Syrian regime, considering it a threat to Arab interests and inter-Arab relations.
  Finally, the Syrian Future Movement (SFM), while thanking the Syrian Democratic Powers (SDP) for sharing their vision and coordinating a unified stance that contributes to a more significant role for the Syrian Democratic Powers (SDP) and positively impacts the Syrian arena, seeks further coordination based on common concerns and unified goals towards building a national democratic state across the entire Syrian map.

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Syrian Future Movement (SFM)