Brussels, 06/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - Following the adoption of a resolution on Thursday 2 October by 103 votes in favour, with 2 abstentions, calling for, “everything to be done to bring peace to the region”, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is now pointing out that, “the situation of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East has changed from being one of concern to one of desperation”. The resolution is attempting to target, “the threats against humanity posed by the terrorist group known as IS”. The name of the group active in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State, Daesh or ISIS, has been the subject of debate at PACE and elsewhere and only the initials were used, so as to avoid conferring the status of state on the organisation or stigmatising Muslims in any way.
Salih Muslim, the copresident of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD) was given a hearing on Monday by the political committee, in preparation for the debate prior to the vote. He referred to the, “brutal organisation that does not have any genuine strategy”. He mentioned the IS siege that had lasted three weeks against the Kurdish city of Kobani, in north-eastern Syria and said that continued coalition bombing was damaging the IS fighters carrying out the siege and that humanitarian aid would be directly controlled by the Kurdish civil administration, which he said was in a sufficiently adequate state to perform this role reliably. Salih Muslim explained that what was politically important in the long term was that, “the European institutions (CoE and the European Union) recognised the Syrian Kurdistan authorities” - the Rojava - and, “stopped going through Turkey or the Syrian government to find out what is happening in the region”. He stressed that, “our structures are very solid” and emphasised the fact that he co-presided his party with a woman, Asya Abdullah, “the only parity there is in the region”.
The PACE resolution does not make any direct mention of formally recognising the Rojava, but it does back up Salih Muslim on the urgent need of stepping up humanitarian aid to the refugee camps in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. It also calls for a reconstruction programme to be set up for the zones affected, which would be organised at a global level and funded by the United Nations (UN).
The text is based on a report by the Greek MEP Theodora Bakoyannis (European People's Party) and also expresses concern about the recruitment of around 3,000 European young people by IS. It urges member states to step up their attempts to identify and dismantle recruitment networks, whilst striving to neutralise IS's sources of funding.
On a more political note, the PACE calls on 47 member states of the Council of Europe and the international community in general to, “support the Iraqi government in its attempts to propose an alternative and prevent the population giving in to the siren calls of IS”. The resolution emphasises that the alternative should distinguish itself in practice from the, “excessive use of force and discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities as experienced under the previous government”. It adds that it is necessary to, “encourage inclusion at all levels in both Iraq and Syria”. (VL)