ALGHOUTA, SYRIA — With the Syrian people’s adoption of revolutionary awareness concept and its popularity within the different segments of society, the Syrian organization Sawaedna (Our Arms), in Eastern Ghouta, seeks to enhance people’s political awareness through a number of weekly discursive seminars, it holds at Heoar Center (Dialogue Center).
According to Nizar Al-Smadi, a co-member and the head of the Free Engineers Union branch in Ghouta, law specialists explain a number of concepts in a discussion with intellectuals and the people of Ghouta to give shape to basic definitions following international laws and UN’s conventions.
Al-Smadi mentioned a program of eight seminars; the last of which had been held on Saturday (October 7). “[The seminars] tackled the role of the organizations and the civil community’s initiatives in improving the reality. In previous seminars, there was an explanation of truce, ceasefire, reconciliation and safe zones as concepts.” The seminars will continue for the next weeks.
According to a survey, conducted by Enab Baladi in Ghouta, the seminars are playing a role in spreading political awareness for they receive participants from Ghouta and others outside it through the internet.
To Enab Baladi, the Head of the Engineers explained the seminars’ mechanisms, which take place with the participation of a number of specialists who discuss with people the possibilities of applying political concepts, through interventions in the seminars’ location and live stream on the Internet in cooperation with al-Masar al-Dimoqraty (the Path of Democracy) channel.
Ayman Abu Hashim, the General Coordinator of Maseer Assembly, Free Palestinian Syrian Assembly, who was an advisor with the Syrian opposition in the Astana Peace Talks, being involved in the international law, explained the concepts of truce, reconciliation and de-escalation in the seminar on September 30. Nominal, political and legislative personalities made interventions during the seminar and enriched the subject under discussion.
Al-Smadi said “[The seminars] aim to raise political awareness of the society and impose a constructive and effective dialogue that breaks the barriers, ideologies and regionalism. They also connect between the revolutionaries in Syria and the nationalists and opposition abroad.” He described the seminars as good and satisfactory.
On the importance of the seminars, the Head of the Engineers said that “They are necessary to teach all the people how to use them to escape the international and legal entitlements, as Russia does, especially with de-escalation that does not exist as an international term.”
Dozens of people, belonging to different social segments, participate in the seminars, which try to actualize certain concepts and present the ways to use them, according to Sawaedna, which considers political awareness and the international law as necessary elements to provide the people with, in addition to revolutionary awareness.
According to the program, the three remaining seminars which end on October 28, will discuss the broad issues of civil disputes and the mechanisms to resolve them, the problem of internal displacement in Ghouta and the role of the media in conveying the reality within it.
Founded in February 2014, ‘Sawaedna’ has different branches inside Syria, added to its center in Eastern Ghouta. It operates in the fields of relief and medical care, as well as psychological support for children and women enhancement.