0
0
On March 13th, Syria’s new ruler the former al-Qaeda member and terrorist leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, signed into law the constitution of the new Syrian Arab Republic and received harsh condemnation from the country’s minorities.
Keeping the same name as that used by the Assad family’s Ba’athist party, this interim constitution is seen as a temporary document, to be replaced in 5 years by a new one, and was drafted by a 7-member committee including Sharaa, the heads of the major ministries, and a constitutional law expert and professor from Turkey.
Antiwar reports the document isn’t even finished, but presents as a sweeping consolidation of power into the executive branch, which by law must “always” be led by a Muslim. Many of the Syrian minorities have for months urged Sharaa to apply broader democratic reforms and even federalism in the case of the Kurds.
The recent slaughter of over 1,000 Alawite civilians and militia members along Syria’s coastal cities by Sharaa’s forces greatly unnerved the country’s other religious minorities, but that hasn’t stopped them from condemning or rejecting the interim constitution.
“The [constitutional] declaration includes provisions and a traditional [legal] framework that closely resemble the measures previously imposed by [Assad’s] Ba’ath government,” read a statement by the Kurdish Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, adding that it “does not represent the aspirations of our people, nor does it acknowledge their true identity in Syria”.
The country’s religious minorities also expressed their displeasure with the document, which Sharaa said he hoped would mark “a new chapter in Syria’s history… where oppression is replaced by justice”.
Uninclusive
“We, the undersigned representatives of Yazidi organizations, associations, and institutions working inside and outside Syria, express our strong condemnation of the contents of the Constitutional Declaration,” read a statement by the Yazidi groups.
They criticized it for “failing to adhere to the principles of international human rights law, as they did not recognize the legal existence of Yazidis as an independent religious minority, nor did they enact legislation or include constitutional articles guaranteeing their religious, cultural, and political rights”.
Perhaps the most charismatic and unique of Syria’s varied cultures, the Yazidis inhabit one small area of the country, and were massacred, cleansed, or forced into sexual slavery by ISIS in 2014. Many are still missing. They are a Kurdish-Iranian ethnic group and worship monotheistically with pre-Zoroastrian roots of belief.
Druze spiritual leader Hikmat al-Hajri has rejected the constitutional declaration on the grounds of its strong centralisation of power and the marginalisation of communities like the Druze, who were massacred in Idlib Province at the hands of the new Syrian Ruler’s former Islamist militia the Nusra Front, which changed its name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham for public relations.
“The constitutional declaration does not pave the way for the required transitional phase in Syria, but rather for an unstable period,” the Syriac Union Party, representing the country’s Christian minority, said in a statement. Based out of the Kurdish lands, the Syriacs maintain a small minority in the Rojava (Kurdish) parliament, and their own police force. They object strongly to the law of the land being an Islamic one rather than a secular one.
Like the Kurds, the Christians see in the constitution a mirror image of the Assad regime: an exclusionary and ‘irrepresentative’ republic.
The Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), which is recognized as the oldest Christian party in Syria, said in a statement on Friday that the constitutional declaration “reflected a continued approach of exclusion and marginalization”.
“We reaffirm that the current constitutional declaration is unacceptable, and we call upon all national forces to unite in drafting a constitution that truly reflects the aspirations of all Syrians in building a democratic, civil state based on equal citizenship and the rule of law,” their statement read.
All of the groups expressed their displeasure at the country being called the ‘Arab’ republic, as it deliberately excludes non-Arab populations.
We Humbly Ask For Your Support—Follow the link here to see all the ways, monetary and non-monetary.
PICTURED ABOVE: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (right) signs the interim Syrian Constitution PC: Office of the President of Syria.
