United Nations Have to Take Over And Get Active

The situation in the North of Syria and Iraq is dramatic and gets worse every day. Affected by the advancing terror groups calling themselves “Islamic State” (IS), considering shocking violence and a flood of refugees threatening to become a humanitarian catastrophe, and not least because of the unability of two failed states to curb the brutal excesses on their territory, many ask themselves rightfully what means the international community has to stop the violence.

We warn against the idea of a fast military solution to the conflict. The fantasies of almightiness which the West associated with its military interventions - often enough against international law - crucially contributed to the Arabic world today being flooded by war and violence. The military intervention policy of NATO, combined with the aimed destabilisation and atomisation of ever more states let by geopolitical interests, failed spectacularly in Iraq and Syria. A third Iraq war is just as little a solution as a new military intervention of the West in Syria.

In light of the catastrophe the policy of the West is caught in old patterns. It is quiet obvious that Turkey wants to bring about the casus foederis to win NATO as an ally for a war against Syria. The Turkish government rather fights the Kurds in its own country and in the North of Syria than closing the borders for IS terrorists. For the professing islamist Erdogan IS is no enemy as long as they only massacre Kurds and fight the Syrian Assad regime. It is also obvious that the US have no strategical interest in helping the Kurds in the North of Syria since their primary interest still lies in the toppling of the Assad regime and the political control over Iraq. The leading NATO actors in the region have no interest in peace but rather follow once more their own geopolitical interests on the back of hundreds of thousands of people. The call for a military intervention of the West, growing louder in Germany as well, leads astray because it repeatedly ignores the devastating consequences of past interventions. It is not the task of DIE LINKE to join in the choire of advocators of a new military adventure. The majority of the people plead for a policy of civil intervention. There is no question for DIE LINKE that the region neither needs new weapons nor new soldiers but a coordinated policy of the international community based on the protection of refugees, humanitarian aid, and the desiccation of terror. We suggest a package of non military measures the planning and implementation of which the United Nations have a special responsibility:

Highest priority must be the protection of refugees and civil society. All measures that could possibly weaken the self defence powers of the Kurds fighting against IS are to be neglected by Turkey. Turkey eventually has to open the borders to the Kurdish areas in Northern Syria and close the borders to IS territory. This would most effectively help the people in Kobane, also in their struggle to defend themselves. For taking in and protecting refugees from the border region the international community under leadership of the UN has to undertake a common effort. The affected neighbouring states may no longer be left alone.

The Kurdish self-government in the North of Syria must eventually be recognized as legitimate democratic way of development for the peope living there.

We want the abolition of the PKK ban.

The humanitarian aid for the people having fled from Syria and Iraq has to be massively increased. For this purpose, the United Nations should undertake the surveillance of the border region to Iraq and Syria. The UN refugee relief organisation must have direct access to the border region. The Western states have to take in a multiple of the currently confirmed numbers of refugees to relieve the neighbouring states. The necessary preconditions have to be created in Germany as well. The municipalities need respective funding.

The IS must effectively be cut off from its financiers in the Arabic world and from the trade with resources and armaments. Banks being directly or indirectly involved in the processing of IS money have at least to be deprived of their banking license for the EU. Countries, directly or indirectly supporting IS have to be sanctioned. The NATO member Turkey has to be forced to completely close its borders for IS terrorists and to remove all supporting networks in the country. Otherwise there will be no ground for an accession to the EU. A country such blatantly violating its NATO treaty obligations in dealing with IS cannot make a claim for backup. That is why the patriot missiles of the Bundeswehr employed in the region have to be withdrawn as to increase pressure on Erdogan.

The international community has to find a way of joint acting. Therefor it is necessary that the two global superpowers  US and Russia are willing to settle their conflicts and grow beyond the extensions of the Cold War. There is no sensible alternative to a peace plan backed by the United Nations.