Germany's Merkel calls for European response to Syria
Chase Winter
February 22, 2018
Angela Merkel has called on the EU to play a more active role in Syria, but German opposition politicians have told DW that her words fall short. One noted how Merkel "forgot" to mention NATO member Turkey's involvement.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/A. Easssa
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday called on the European Union to play a greater role in the Syrian conflict, as President Bashar al-Assad's regime and Russia pressed an offensive against a rebel-held enclave near Damascus that has killed hundreds of civilians in the past five days.
"What we see at the moment, the terrible events in Syria, the fight of a regime not against terrorists, but against its own people, the killing of children, the destruction of hospitals, all this is a massacre which has to be condemned," Merkel told the Bundestag parliament in Berlin in a debate on Thursday.
According to monitors based in the UK, Russian and Syrian regime bombardment of rebel-held eastern Ghouta has killed more than 400 civilians and injured around 2,000 more since Sunday, with residential buildings, hospitals and infrastructure being hit.
Merkel's comment to the Bundestag comes a day ahead of EU leaders meeting in Brussels and as a coalition agreement drawn up between her conservatives and the Social Democrats is awaiting approval.
A key platform of the proposed coalition agreement is strengthening the EU and developing a common foreign and security policy. Moving forward on strengthening the EU with France is on hold until Germany has a new government.
The chancellor said that in particular Europe must put pressure on the Assad regime and its key backers, Russia and Iran.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters on Thursday that he had already spoken to the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross and intended to speak with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Millions of people have been of displaced and more than 400,000 people killed during the seven-year Syrian civil war.
Escalation in eastern Ghouta, a Syrian regime offensive against jihadi-dominated Idlib province and a Turkish offensive against the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin threatens to cause further destruction.
Who's fighting in the Syria conflict?
Syria's civil war erupted out of the Arab Spring protests that swept much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The conflict has since drawn in multiple warring factions from around the world.
Image: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/A. Al-Bushy
The dictator
Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.
Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. Turkey has launched multiple military offensives targeting Kurdish militias.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L. Pitarakis
The eastern guardian
The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tass/M. Metzel
The western allies
A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Brandon
The rebels
The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.
Image: Reuters
The resistance
Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.
Image: Getty Images/A. Sik
The new jihadists
"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is on the brink of defeat after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo
The old jihadists
IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Nusra Front on Twitter
The Persian shadow
Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.
Stefan Liebich, an MP with the Left Party and member of the Bundestag's foreign relations committee, told DW that Merkel was right to blame the Assad regime and its backers.
"But she forgot to mention another part of this war. Our NATO partner Turkey is invading Syria and fighting NATO allies, the Kurdish YPG [militia]. She totally forgot to mention this," Liebich said, adding that the the Turkish operation against Afrin was against international law.
"One NATO partner, Turkey, is threatening another NATO partner, the United States," he said, a reference to the US support for Kurdish forces in Syria.
'Condemning is not enough'
Omid Nouripour, a Green Party MP and member of both the foreign and defense committees in the Bundestag, told DW that it was not enough for Merkel to simply condemn the situation in Syria.
"It's not enough to say 'we are condemning it,'" Nouripour said. "I would love to see the chancellor talking about the Russians, addressing the Russians and asking them to take responsibility for their own votes in the UN Security Council."
"The question from the other sides, from the US, from the Russians, has always been: 'What is the European position?' And we've never had one. This is why we've been sidelined. If we want to have a voice again, if we want to be heard, if we want to contribute to resolving this conflict, we have to come together, we have to find a common voice and a common language to talk to the world," Nouripour told DW.
