Implementing Sochi agreement is a priority before countering terrorism – Syrian opponent
Northern Syria – North-Press Agency
The head of the General Secretariat of “Damascus Declaration (DD) Coalition” and his representative in the Executive Committee of the Syrian National Council Samir Nashar talked about Sochi agreement and the exerted pressure on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), following the recent demonstrations against HTS and the future of northwest Syria.
Samir Nashar told North-Press that the delay in the implementation of Sochi agreement by Turkey, especially the clause regarding the opening of the highways of Aleppo-Damascus and Aleppo-Latakia, gave Russia a pretext to bomb opposite-held areas, especially after the recent intensified battles in northern Hama.
He attributed what happens in the de-escalation zones to Sochi agreement, following civilians’ demonstrations at the closed Turkish borders while raising slogans condemning Turkey’s policy, and considering Turkey a guarantor of the de-escalation zones and presumably supportive of the Syrian revolution, as it supposed to be.
The Syrian opponent expressed his fears regarding the ongoing Russian bombardments that may increase the number of displaced people, pointing to the repercussions of this displacement and the continued escalation on Turkey’s stance before the Syrians and the international community.
He also pointed to its impact on the Russian stance in front of the international community, where more than a million civilians stand helpless at the Syrian-Turkish borders escaping from the mass killing carried out by the Syrian and Russian fighter jets.
Nashar believes that Russia had agreed the cease-fire only to give Turkey a new deadline in order to persuade the opposition groups to implement Sochi agreement without fighting, “which was rejected by the former groups, including al-Nusra Front, the jihadists and other groups of the Free Army, especially who belong to those areas”, as he said.
Samir Nashar pointed out to the exerted pressures on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra Front) to integrate with the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front.
He believes that this integration will contribute to the dissolution of HTS within a new body and getting rid of the character of terrorism, as it would become more flexible in the implementation of the Turkish directives and fight the remaining jihadi groups such as Ansar al-Din Front (Harakat Sham al-Islam and Harakat Fajr al-Sham), the Guardians of Religion Organization, Ansar al-Tawhid, the Turkistan Islamic Party, in addition to pressure the rest of the groups which reject the implementation of Sochi in order to accept.
He stressed that the current aim is to implement Sochi agreement before fighting terrorism as they claim, and prepare to return a large part of the liberated territories to the Syrian government’s control.
“In case the shelling resumes, it means that Turkey has failed in its second attempt, but in case the international highways are opened, this means that Sochi agreement will be implemented and that Turkey has managed to contain (al-Nusra Front) and the other groups which reject Sochi agreement”, according to the Syrian opponent Samir Nashar.