A new project called the "Syrian Noah's Ark" was launched online two weeks ago, but the campaign is shrouded in mystery.
No one knows the real identity of the project's founders, who have refused to reveal their names. The group says that this project is Syria's "last lifeline", and they refuse to monopolize the project on behalf of a specific or particular party or stream, considering that the Ark does not belong to anybody and at the same time it belongs to all Syrians.
The group has denied an article published on the al-Bawsala (compass) site that the project belongs to Mouaz Khatib or Haytham Manna, or to anybody else, and said whoever markets such rumors will be considered a traitor trying to abort the national youth project before its birth.
The builders of the Syrian Noah's Ark hope to achieve a true parliamentary democracy in Syria. Their statements confirm that they have a large popular base in Syria, and describe themselves as the "patriots" who refused the current situation and recognise the risks and ambitions in their country. They consider themselves the crushed class which both sides of the conflict claim to represent. The group considers themselves the biggest losers so far in the war they describe as a "flood".
The builders of the ark are Syrian national youth from all intellectual and ideological, sectarian and ethnic movements, calling for the return of the original spirit of the revolution, rejecting the authoritarianism represented by Bashar Assad and his gangs, but also rejecting the new tyranny crystallized in the revolution. They call for the return of the voices of citizens which have been confiscated by bullets, guns and aircraft.
The Al-Bawsala page, which is the sole official newspaper of SyrianNoah's Ark, published a call to stop the fighting in Syria for one day on World Children's Day, on 1 June.
"Stop the war for one day, look in the eyes of your children, and ask them about their wishes at the end of the day. Our children, with their innocent wishes, are shaping the greatest programs in history, and they draw all the future with their hopes".
Translated and edited by the Syrian Observer
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