International E-Journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Öz

The
article „International peace initiatives to resolve the
conflict in Syria” reveals the international efforts to bring the conflict to
an end and start a meaningful peace process that would reconcile the
conflicting parties and engage them in a series of negotiations aiming to
initiate a National Dialogue, draft a mutually acceptable Constitution and
prepare free and fair elections that would decide the issue of political power
in the country. The article outlines the peace endeavors of the United Nations
Security Council, which adopted several resolutions to support the efforts to
prevent the use of chemical weapons in Syria, authorize a mechanism to conduct
humanitarian operations and establish cease-fire conditions. Furthermore, the
article describes in detail the so called Geneva Peace Process as the framework,
which started negotiating the establishment of transitional power architecture
with a transitional governing body possessing full executive powers, comprised
of representatives of the Syrian regime and the opposition. The article goes on
to highlight the guidelines and principles of the political transition and the
results of the subsequent rounds of political talks, which didn’t yield a
conclusive outcome because of the unfavorable conditions on the ground and the
ongoing offensive of the government forces against the opposition groups. Then,
the article analyzes the peace efforts undertaken under the leadership of the
countries engaged to the greatest extent with the events on the ground –
Russia, Turkey and Iran, and summarizes the results achieved at the meetings
held in Astana in order to negotiate conditions for the cessation of military
operations and the launch of a peace dialogue between the regime and the
opposition. The article emphasizes upon the meeting of 3-4 May 2017, when a
memorandum was signed on creating four De-escalation Zones in the territories
controlled by the opposition, and underlines the importance of the next
meeting, when decisions were made to establish a trilateral coordination centre
for combined operations in the zones and to convene a Syrian Congress of the
National Dialogue in January 2018 in Sochi. Finally, the article concludes that
the political settlement requires a balance between the geopolitical objectives
of the outside factors involved and the power ambitions of the internal players
and argues that the outcome of the negotiations depends mainly on the situation
on the ground.