The CHP's Syria conference

The "International Syria Conference" that the CHP held in Istanbul, unfortunately, did not surprise. Had Assad, a dictator who, in order to stay in power, massacred one million of his own people in the most savage manner without batting an eye, brought the roof down on his people's heads, burned and destroyed their cities, used chemical weapons when necessary, and thus forced half of his people to flee from the country he had made uninhabitable, organized a meeting in Damascus, he probably could not have done a better job from his own standpoint.

So had we hoped to be surprised by this meeting? To tell the truth, the policies of the CHP and Kılıçdaroğlu on Syria and the Syrians from the start left no chance of any other outcome, but still, when they finally decided for the first time to address the Syrian issue at the level of a conference, and especially when they announced it as "a meeting to which all sides would be invited," one hopes, one wants, to be surprised.

It was a conference tied to a message in which only Assad supporters were invited, which placed almost all the responsibility for the problems in Syria on Turkey, and which proposed, if a solution is wanted, resuming with Assad where things left off as if nothing had happened. There is no criticism at all of Iran, of Assad himself, of the US, of the PKK, or of the PYD, which has put its signature to systematic massacres and deportations as the instrument of ethnic cleansing in Syria. All there is, is Turkey's support for the jihadists there. It characterizes the safe humanitarian corridor that Turkey will create as "building housing on another country's territory," that is, as a kind of occupation. Look, the occupiers there right now are the US and the PYD; you have no discomfort at all on their account, and your only objection is to Turkey creating a safe place there to which the Syrians who have taken refuge in its own country can return? What country's political party are you?

Even when saying jihadist, a language is used that is Assadist (shared, of course, by the PKK as well), whose result is a plain slander of Turkey. As is known, according to Assad and all dictators, there are no opponents in their countries, there is no one who objects because they have been wronged; all there is, is terrorists.

Then why have 10 million of his people fled? Are all the people of Syria terrorists? In conflicts of this kind it is a fundamental and indisputable datum: the refugee brings along with him the legitimacy of his country. If the CHP wants to remember a little social democracy, human rights, human dignity and so on, it should first think about this a little. Every person who has taken refuge in Turkey has certainly had one or several relatives massacred by the Assad regime.

A stock sentence was uttered like "Ending the conflicts in our neighbor Syria, establishing peace, tranquility and stability, and resolving the issue of Syrian asylum seekers on the axis of international law and human rights must be a fundamental and priority goal for Turkey," but then it lashed out at Turkey's policies on the very same grounds.

It is evident that on this matter it does not even know what Turkey is doing. What is Turkey after in Sochi, in Astana, in Geneva? Is not its first priority to stop the war and to bring Syria to a stability to which all Syrians can return with confidence?

Ah, is that even a question for us now? There is Russia in the Mediterranean, there is Greece, there is Israel? There is the US; why is only Turkey not there?" Is this question not a bit too heavy for the leader of a political party who voices it, and even shouts it?

Let us go on, then. It is easy to hold such a conference in Turkey that lashes out at the AK Party. What if you tried to hold a similar conference in Damascus with writers and politicians who oppose Assad? At least, in the meantime, you could offer Assad a piece or two of advice on how he should treat his own people.

The conclusion of the conference was tied to a recommendation that Turkey normalize its relations with the Assad regime for the sake of establishing stability in Syria. What will this normalization achieve? How much will it save Assad? How much will it save the Syrian people who had to flee Assad's tyranny and take refuge in neighboring countries or at the other end of the world, and what kind of guarantee will it provide for their return to their countries?

Even if Assad gave the world's guarantee, how, after this point, will the Syrians be able to trust and return once again to their homelands, where no guarantee is left other than Assad's mercy? If the matter is to be resolved by Turkey patching things up with Assad, then fine, let us recommend this too; but if you like, make this offer to the asylum seekers as well, those who were subjected to the tortures of Assad's beastly shabiha, whose homes were destroyed, whose relatives were massacred, who were raped, and who in the end had to flee. Could they trust Assad's word or your mediation and return to their homes?

With the hatred you incite against them in every election period, with the pain of the "xenophobia" that you, as a social democratic party at last, have engraved in minds in Turkey, how much can you persuade them?