Participants of Sochi Congress decide to write new Constitution for Syria
On Tuesday, January 30, in Sochi, the Syrian National Dialogue Congress , initiated by Russia, concluded its work.
In the final speech, Staffan de Mistura, United Nations special envoy for the Syria crisis, announced the decision of the participants to create a constitutional council, which will consist of representatives of the current government, opposition, civil society, and tribes, RBC news agency reports. And Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists that, as a result of the Sochi congress, a statement was adopted that contains the basic principles of the future state structure of Syria.
“We expect that de Mistura, on whom the congress has called for assistance in the activities of the committee in full accordance with its prerogatives on resolution 2254 (UN Security Council resolution), will organize the work in a practical way. And we expect in the very near future to hear the specific details of how he plans to do this,” Lavrov said.
RBC news agency reports that the constitutional commission will consist of 150 people - 100 representatives of Damascus and 50 from the opposition.
A total of 1,393 people attended the congress from both Syria and abroad. Attendees included members of various parties and political movements, members of trade unions, tribal elders, religious figures, activists and human rights activists, representatives of student unions, opposition members and those loyal to the current Syrian regime, and the country’s president Bashar Assad.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) did not participate in the forum; its participation was blocked by Turkey. Oppositionists from the Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HPC), based in Saudi Arabia, also did not attend the meeting. The participants worked until late into the evening to reach agreements on the final documents - a communiqué and a general appeal of the congress participants.
The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and representatives of the foreign ministries of Iran and Turkey attended the congress. Several participants said that de Mistura did not take part in the congressional sessions. On the morning of January 30, he expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that almost all of the delegates from the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces who traveled from Turkey, left Sochi in the morning. The oppositionists were unhappy that the badges and other symbols of the congress featured only the Syrian flag with two stars; they demanded that the flag of the opposition be depicted as well, which has three stars.