Syria: Neither Dictatorship nor Sectarian Divide
For over 6 years now, the Syrian population has been suffering one of the largest conflicts and humanitarian crisis of the last 75 years. This appalling situation is the result of the armed repression unleashed by the regime of Bachar Al Asad during the spring of 2011 to crush the massive peaceful mobilizations demanding democracy and civil rights, and the end of the police state and institutionalized corruption.
The conference Syria: Neither Dictatorship nor Sectarian Divide, organised by CIDOB and the Barcelona City Council, have given voice to a series of Syrian exiled professionals, intellectuals and activists who do not accept neither dictatorship nor confessionalism and who believe in the country’s democratic reconstruction.
Are we being presented with a situation in which we must choose between the “lesser” of two evils: dictatorship and sectarianism? Who is interested in Assad’s survival? Luz Gómez and Eduard Soler respond to these questions.
Is information another weapon in this conflict? How representative and cohesive is the Syrian opposition? Yassin Swehat explains the role played by disinformation in the international coverage of the conflict and the weakness of the opposition in Syria.
Much has been said about the physical destruction of the country but the destruction of the Syrian society runs parallel to it, is it irreparable? Yassin al Haj Saleh poses the conditions that should be given for the resolution of the conflict.
Who are the most vulnerable groups in the conflict? On what grounds can civilian unity be rebuilt in Syria? Leila Shami explains what circumstances would allow a large part of the nearly 5 million Syrians who left the country to return.