In Syria no one has the right to ask for more than equality

Contrary to the claims, or in fact the expectations, of certain nationalist Kurdish circles, the operations carried out by the Syrian army to clear SDF elements from Aleppo were aimed entirely at the organization's elements, and were carried out within as humane a framework as possible even against them.

That the operations produced such definitive results so quickly shows how adept the Syrian forces under Sharaa's command have become at this work. But more importantly, it shows that they were able to remain within a far more humane framework than all the operations we have been accustomed to in the Syrian field, and to display, together with an extraordinary sensitivity in distinguishing between fighter and civilian, an equally extraordinary military success.

THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT'S EXEMPLARY OPERATIONS

The Baath regime, Russia, ISIS, Iran or US forces too, in countless operations carried out at various times in various places in Syria, left behind seemingly inevitable scenes: ruined cities, houses, civilian massacres and the waves of refugee migration that began right after. For the first time, Turkey's Operations Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch and Peace Spring distinguished between civilian and terrorist with the meticulousness of a jeweler, fought ISIS without harming any civilian, and cleared the lands occupied by its militants. That operations conducted in the name of fighting terror sweep up a hundred times as many civilians along with the so-called terrorist they neutralize shows how fraudulent a pretext the "fight against terror" concept essentially is. Israel constantly practices this very same fraud against the Palestinians.

It must be emphasized that after Syrian government forces cleared Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud of the SDF, the residents of these neighborhoods, instead of migrating, returned to their homes immediately, and that even residents who had been forced to migrate much earlier returned to their homes safely after the city was evacuated of SDF militants.

WAR ALSO HAS ITS LAW AND THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT SHOWS THIS IN THE BEST WAY

Truly, the conduct of Syrian government officials during the operations, especially toward SDF militants who laid down their weapons and were evacuated, should be engraved in minds as a lesson in humanity. These are scenes that should shame the SDF and everyone who supports it on the claim that it represents the so-called Kurds or Kurds' rights. There is not the slightest hate speech toward the SDF militants who have laid down their arms.

The cause is not a cause against the Kurds; it is an invitation for Syria to belong to all Syrians and for all together to contribute to the building of Syria. But of course no privilege that nobody could ever have and that would ultimately work only for Israel will be given to anyone. Nobody has the right to demand more than equality. No injustice is done to a person or a group by not giving them more than equality. For the Syrian people as a whole, recognizing the privileges the SDF demands today, beyond what it deserves, in regions belonging to the whole Syrian people, would be an oppression, and more importantly, it would mean recognizing the occupying presence of the foreign powers that granted it these privileges by creating a de facto situation during the former regime.

AHMED SHARAA'S EMBRACING MESSAGES

In contrast to all this, the messages given by Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa are very clear, fair, inclusive and embracing. He has a 14-year war experience against the Syrian Baath regime, but there has never been a notion of a Syria without Kurds, or in which Kurds are discriminated against. On the contrary, in an interview he gave in recent days (and which the channel did not broadcast) to Shams TV, an Arabic news channel broadcasting from the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), after saying that the Kurds are an inseparable part of Syrian society, he drew a last reasonable framework for Syria's pluralistic structure that includes the Kurds. No fair, just Kurd can object to this framework.

Sharaa says: "The Kurdish people are already naturally integrated with Syria's social fabric. Today there are neighborhoods in the center of Damascus where the Kurdish population lives; Kurds live intertwined with Syrian society and study at universities. There are already Kurdish names in the Syrian government. Indeed, the Ministry of Education, one of the most important ministries, is run by a Kurdish minister. The protection of the Kurdish people and their rights, the correct evaluation of the new period in Syria, ensuring the full integration of the Kurdish people with the Syrian state, and the Kurds' effective participation in the process are of great importance.

We proposed that the Kurdish people participate in the parliamentary elections.

However, in Syria's northeastern regions, the holding of the new Syrian Parliament (People's Assembly) elections was obstructed.

Although the SDF claims otherwise, its links with Kandil are plain for all to see.

How can you think that a military organization that came from across the border and has a 40-50 year problematic history with Turkey is the only structure that can protect the rights of the Kurdish people in Syria?

Imprisoning the Kurdish people within armed, narrow and closed organizational structures, associating them with structures that have external connections, take instructions from Kandil, have been cut off from social life for forty-fifty years and have become a chronic problem in Turkey, drags the Kurds in Syria into a deep impasse.

This situation deprives the Kurdish people and the regions they live in of the processes being carried out in Syria today, such as development, reconstruction and education; at the same time it clearly contradicts the international will that supports Syria's territorial integrity.

This participation covers the whole of representation at the level of the army, security institutions, administrative cadres and parliament.

Moreover, contributing to the building of a common and unified legal system for Syria is also a vital responsibility."

THIS VOICE, TO WHICH NO FAIR KURD CAN OBJECT, MUST BE HEARD

Sharaa already acknowledges the Kurdish people's victimization in Assad's time, but their victimization in that period does not create a situation that would put the present Syrian government in debt. Indeed, the whole Syrian people suffered far more than the oppression to which the Kurds were subjected.

"There were systematic practices of oppression against the Kurdish people. Some of the Kurds had been deprived of Syrian citizenship, and their citizenship and basic rights had been obstructed.

For this reason the overthrow of the fallen regime system was the first and fundamental step in terms of restoring the Kurdish people's actual and real rights."

As for the possible threat of ISIS, Sharaa reminds that his having fought ISIS most effectively in his own history of struggle should constitute a sufficient reference.

The framework Sharaa draws is not one to which anyone with a sense of fairness, least of all any Kurd, can object. This voice must be heard. It is a call that guarantees that Syria belongs to all Syrians and that no one will be excluded from the process of building Syria, and that on the contrary invites everyone to contribute to this process of building.

Those who heed this call will have taken their place on the right side of history. As for those who do not take their place on the right side of history, history will grind them in its own mill in its own way.