The task of the Sochi Forum is actually quite technological, it can be formulated as follows: the preparation of the new Constitution of the country. And, such, with which all participants of the recent confrontation would agree. However, this is the main difficulty of the Syrian settlement – the consciousness of those gathered, accustomed to proving their rightness with weapons in hand, has to be reformatted, to teach each other to negotiate. That is why the main word in the Congress name is dialogue.
This is what distinguishes a unipolar world with a single center of power and a peculiarly understood justice from a multipolar one, in which everyone – all Arabs, Kurds, Yezids, Druzes, Christians and Muslims get along.
In this regard, the absence of Americans in Sochi is natural – the US will long cling to the former, convenient version of the world order. They are now as difficult as a drug addict in the period of withdrawal, – “a dose of unipolarity” is desperately needed, but it is no longer given. Here they are tormented, they urge the participants to limit themselves to Geneva, although the center of reconciliation has long shifted – first to Astana, and now to Sochi.
It’s not a matter of who is fighting whom, Russia or the United States. The problem is in different approaches.
The American version: first full and unconditional victory over Bashar Assad. That is, the winner gets everything. That’s why Washington is so illegible in its money, it easily enters into deals with terrorists. And completely ignores international law, according to which Syria must itself solve its problems. Including determine who to turn to for help. Sicne this is a sovereign state with a legally elected president, a representative in the UN and other international structures, as well as with embassies in different countries.
The Russian version primarily involves respect for sovereignty, rejects any interaction with terrorists, the goal is to declare peace, not war, before the defeat of all dissidents. In Sochi, guns are silent – only the word is valued here.
In fact, today the delegates will begin formulating a kind of “Minsk agreements”, only with a Syrian accent. And I’m very sorry that Kiev did not send its representatives here – it would not hurt to learn mind-reason.
Why is it so important for Syria (and, of course, for Ukraine) to work out and adopt a new constitution? It’s simple: the civil war destroyed the old one. The state, where the law was violated for seven years, requires a new legitimacy. Which it will become – religious or secular, parliamentary or presidential, it is up to the Syrians themselves to decide. This is their internal business, we only create conditions for people to agree among themselves.
As it should be in such cases, all national, ethnic and religious minorities participate in the preparation of the main document. No one should be offended, according to the new Basic Law, which suits everyone, the country is to live, perhaps for centuries.
After representatives of all groups agree with the edited text, the draft constitution will be put to a nationwide referendum, and they will vote for it. After that, the presidential and parliamentary elections will be announced. Syria will turn into a peaceful state, in which everyone feels comfortable.
Of course, this idyll is far away. And not only because it is necessary to restore the destroyed cities and infrastructure, to catch and destroy the remnants of gangs of terrorists, to find and neutralize all mines. The Syrians themselves need to learn to live peacefully with each other. Including the new government, which also in recent years has become accustomed to pursue goals by military means.