ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Friday, in a strongly-worded statement, announced its “complete rejection” of the draft Constitutional Declaration signed by the country’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, slamming it as "tyranny in a new form.”
Syria’s Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday signed the country’s draft Constitutional Declaration, over three months after toppling the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Sharaa hoped that the draft would set the country on a path toward development and becomes “a new history for Syria, one in which we replace ignorance with knowledge and suffering with mercy.”
"This draft reproduces tyranny in a new form, consolidating central rule and granting the executive authority absolute powers while restricting political activity and freezing the formation of parties, thus obstructing the path to democratic transformation,” the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the SDF’s political wing said on Friday in a statement.
The SDC added: "The draft also ignores the absence of clear mechanisms for transitional justice, which further deepens the national crisis.
"We strongly reject any attempt to recreate dictatorship under the guise of a "transitional phase.”
The declaration sets Arabic as the official language of the state and does not include any mentions of any other ethnicities or religions by name apart from Arab and Islam.
“We call for redrafting the declaration to ensure a fair distribution of power, guarantee freedom of political action, recognize the rights of all Syrian components, and adopt a decentralized, democratic system of government with clear mechanisms for achieving transitional justice,” the SDC added.
An 11-day sweeping rebel offensive spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Sharaa, brought a five-decade-long rule of the Assad family to an end on December 8.
In late January, it was announced that Syria’s 2012 constitution would be abolished, and a new one would be drafted for the new era in the country.
Kurdish authorities have repeatedly criticized Damascus for the lack of inclusion of other ethnic and religious groups in the transitional process.
Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on Monday signed an eight-point agreement to officially integrate the Kurdish-led forces along with all other institutions in northeastern Syria into the Syrian state institutions.
"Syria is a homeland for all its people, and we will not accept the re-establishment of an authoritarian regime,” the SDC concluded.
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