Russia and Germany should summon an international conference on Syria!

On the occasion of Vladimir Putin's forthcoming visit to Berlin (June 1st), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) appealed to Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Russian President on Thursday, to advocate for an international conference on Syria together. "Both strategies – of the EU and of Russia – toward Syria have failed. Now it is essential to speak up internationally and with one voice, to finally stop the bloodshed," says a letter of the STP's general secretary, Tilman Zülch. "An international conference could be used for discussions on plausible scenarios and to agree on solutions that all relevant states and also all the peoples of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious state of Syria could accept."

Because of the dramatic situation in Syria, the STP calls on President Putin to rethink his policy of supporting the Assad regime and to work on an a solution for the "Syrian crisis" in cooperation with the western states. Russia should emphasize the unity of the International Community's to put an end to the killing in Syria. Germany, other EU countries, the United States and Australia have expelled Syrian diplomats after a massacre had taken place in the Syrian village of Hula (province of Homs) on May 25, 2012. At least 108 civilians were killed in the massacre – among them 32 children.

In view of the STP, all the population groups of the multi-ethnic state of Syria and several international players should participate in an international conference on equal grounds, including representatives of the religious communities of the Sunnis, the Alawites, the Druze and the various Christian denominations. Representatives of ethnic minorities like the Kurds, the Armenians, the Turkmen and Assyrian-Aramaeans should also be invited to attend the conference.

"It is not to happen again, that representatives of a single population group hold the power over a multi-religious and multi-ethnic state, like al-Assad and his allies – all of them Alawites – had for decades," the human rights organization states. The new Syria must guarantee human rights, freedom of religion and freedom of expression. To break down the state's power, a change from a central government to federal structures must take place. First steps in this direction were made by the establishment of the autonomous region of Kurdistan in neighboring Iraq.

Despite the efforts of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan – who was appointed UN special envoy to Syria and the Arab League – the killing in Syria continues. Even though the regime in Damascus is keeping up the brutality by using tanks, artillery, rocket launchers and helicopters against the protesters since March 2011, the dictator is unable to put an end to the uprising. Also, the insurgents are not able to overthrow the dictator. According to the UN, at least 9,000 people got killed so far. At least 63,000 have fled to Lebanon, to Jordan, Turkey or Iraq.