Sochi conference casualty of Turkey’s military offensive in Syria
Syrian opposition meeting reveals extent — and limits — of Russian-Turkish collaboration.
The meeting of the Syrian National Dialogue conference in Sochi recently was a victim of Turkey’s military invasion of northern Syria, which has now entered its second week.
More than 1,500 Syrian delegates attended the Russian-hosted all Syrian “dialogue” in Sochi, which included unusual crosstalk between representatives of the government and those from groups outside the government. Despite the unwieldy proceedings and inconclusive results, the scale and scope of the discussions cannot be easily dismissed, despite the absence of key opposition groups and the failure of the meeting to ramp down the recent uptick in fighting.
While the boycott of the mainstream opposition High Negotiation Committee was expected, the absence of any Syrian Kurdish parties also meant that Turkey’s military operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) was not on the conference agenda.
“Not only was the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) absent from Sochi, but also absent was its main rival, the Kurdish National Council — a pro-Massoud Barzani alliance recognized by Turkey,” writes Cengiz Candar. “In sum, there was no real Syrian Kurdish representation in Sochi. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control a sizable swath of Syrian territory, were not in Sochi either.” (Barzani is the former president of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq.)
