The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has sent an appeal to the governments of the Russian Federation and the United States, demanding an end to the armed conflict in Syria. Given the serious war crimes against the civilian population of Aleppo and other cities, we urgently call for a peaceful solution for Syria.
The STP demands that Russia stop bombing the eastern parts of Aleppo that are controlled by Islamist rebels, and persuades the allied Syrian regime to withdraw its air force from there as well – immediately. The US must ensure that all radical Islamist groups in the area of Aleppo are disarmed, or that they will at least comply with a ceasefire. In our opinion, this would be the only way to prevent a mass exodus from the parts of the city that are controlled by the regime. There are still about 1.5 million people – including at least 100,000 Christians, Armenians, Assyrians/Aramaeans/Chaldeans, Kurds, Alevis, Ismailis, Shias and Yazidis – living there. For them, the radical Islamist groups, who want to turn Aleppo into a purely Sunni-Arab city, are a deadly threat.
While Russia and Iran as well as Shia militias are supporting the Syrian regime by all means, the US and the other Nato countries, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are providing the radical Islamists with even more weapons. The pro-Islamic Turkish government supports the Islamists as well – as an attempt to destroy the “oasis of peace” in northern Syria. There, the Kurds and their Assyrian Aramaic, Arabic and Turkmen allies were able to fend off the Islamist fighters as well as Assad’s troops. The Kurds are consistently following a secular agenda, and they have already provided shelter for hundreds of thousands of refugees in the region under their control.
Kamal Sido
STP, Göttingen, Germany
• Ban Ki-moon’s accusation that Russia and the Syrian regime are “committing war crimes” (Aleppo begs for help as Assad forces hit hospitals, 29 September), confirms the need for urgent action to halt the atrocities. In recent times only sanctions appear to have reined Russia in. A December 2014 EU Institute for Security Studies report said of combined EU and US sanctions, which were largely financial and commercial, including a two-way arms embargo, against Russia over Ukraine: “Restrictive measures might have bolstered Putin in the short term but might also seriously constrain him in the longer term”, but nevertheless: “sanctions can be preventive.” Sanctions against Russia must be deployed urgently along with diplomacy once again.
David Murray
Wallington, Surrey
• Adrian Hamilton’s perception of Syria under the Assad regime (The west has to look beyond Aleppo’s agony, 28 September) is very much at odds with mine formed by two years living and working in the country; but these things are often subjective. However, his assertion that “No one who remembers how Assad’s father put down the revolt in Hama in 1982 can doubt the ruthlessness with which the Alawite regime acts against its opponents” is downright misleading. The 1982 Hama rebellion was led by the Muslim Brotherhood who objected to the secular nature of the Assad regime and specifically to the a change in the law which would have allowed a “non-Muslim” to become president. Had this uprising succeeded, Syria would by now almost certainly be a caliphate.
More confusing is the article’s prediction that an Assad victory would involve “taking on the Kurds”. In the early years of the present conflict the Kurds were put under great pressure by Turkey to join them in attacking the Assad regime, something they refused to do. The main anti-Assad group at Geneva, the HNC, comprises three groups regarded by many in the west as being terrorist but excludes Kurdish representatives. The Kurds who, like the Christian and displaced Palestinian communities have lived in peace with their Syrian neighbours for decades, have been the most effective fighters against Islamic State. Why then in the aftermath of war would Assad seek confrontation with the Kurds?
Whatever goal is chosen it should not involve finding “another way to stop Assad from winning the war”. Restoring a peaceful climate in which UN-supervised elections could be held, thus enabling the Syrian people to chose their own leader free from outside influences, would appear to be the way to go.
Paul Hewitson
Berlin
• The hysterical army of protesters who condemn Tony Blair for his part in the Iraq war (ie removing a mass-murdering dictator) maintained that political efforts to find peace had not been exhausted. The Syrian people have been bombed, shot, tortured and starved for five years. Where are those protesters now and their political effort? Just silence, while the innocent die.
Rupert Stringer
Horley, Surrey
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
