Lately there has been a lot of talk about sectarian and ethnic conferences, specifically about a conference for dissident Alawites.
Work is needed to continue to hold conferences that include all communities in Syria, to lay the foundation for a general Syrian conference in which the whole Syrian spectra are properly represented, which will help to resolve the conflict in Syria.
Sectarian conferences pose a risk to Syrian national unity and of using a sectarian mentality as a basis for any upcoming solution, which will have a disastrous result on Syria and its people. Such a solution is considered the beginning of a solution based on small ethnic and sectarian cantons which would be easily disassembled into small states if the conflict continues.
Also, there is a greater risk if the required national solution is not found. These conferences provide a legitimate cover for a civil war based on sectarian and ethnic bases, and division would be one of its outputs.
The international parties that sponsor this kind of formula do not want the Syrians to reach a solution that ensures the establishment of the state of citizenship for all Syrians of different backgrounds. These parties actually want a solution similar to the Iraqi one, a solution that only deepens divisions.
We, the undersigned Syrian citizens, reject holding these conferences and condemn those who seek to hold them, or participate in them, and we consider that these conferences present obstacles to a Syrian national solution.
The number of signatories exceededs 200 people, includin Aref Dalila, Tawfiq Dunia, Fadi Saad, Bassam Youssef, Faeq Hawijah and Michael Saad.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
