Possible return agreements with Syria and Afghanistan

With regard to the current debate concerning possible deportations to Syria and Afghanistan, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is calling on the German Federal Government not to make any diplomatic concessions to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, the Taliban, or Turkish ruler Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In an interview with the ZDF, Chancellor Olaf Scholz had announced plans to facilitate deportations of criminals to Syria and Afghanistan. “Olaf Scholz must not legitimize this regime. A return agreement with the dictatorial Assad regime or the Taliban would be a step in that direction. This would continue the federal government’s failed policies, not correct them,” criticized Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant, in Göttingen today.

“The Assad regime and the Taliban are responsible for mass crimes. In Afghanistan, women and the Hazara minority are suffering from persecution by the Taliban and the local Islamic State (IS). In Syria, Assad is increasingly cooperating with Iran, Turkey, and Russia in the scope of the so-called Astan Format in order to harm the Kurdish people in the north of the country as well as the Syrian democracy movement. The policies of the Taliban and the Assad regime should not be legitimized by substantial concessions,” the human rights activist warned.

“Also, it would be a serious mistake to cooperate with Turkey in order to facilitate deportations via neighboring Syria. The Turkish army occupied large parts of the settlement areas of the Syrian Kurds in the north of Syrian in an internationally wrongful act. These areas have become a breeding ground for radical Islamism. Erdoğan would probably relocate deported Islamists to these areas – or use them as Islamist fighters in Africa or the South Caucasus. Also, he might send them back to Germany via Turkey, to let them commit terrorist attacks here,” Sido explained.

“If Scholz were to strike a deal with Erdoğan or the Taliban, this would promote Islamism, not fight it,” the Middle East expert warned. “Instead, the German Federal Government should rethink its policy towards Islamist partners such as Erdoğan, the Emir of Qatar, or the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. It would be important to – together with other EU governments – combat the causes of flight in the long term by means of peace initiatives for existing conflicts.

Anyone who exports masses of weapons to crisis regions or fuels armed conflicts should not be surprised if people flee in droves, also towards Germany and Europe,” Sido emphasized.