At the invitation of the Academy for Diplomacy in North and East Syria, and in cooperation with the Civil Diplomacy Center, a dialogue session was held at the Center for Diplomatic Studies and Consultation, in the presence of dozens of members of the Civil Diplomacy Platform in North and East Syria, institutions, federations, and professional unions, in addition to representatives of the Council of Democratic Syria “SDC” and the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria.
A member of the Academy for Diplomacy, Alan Rasho opened the session by saying that diplomacy is the product of a long history of development by the Sumerian civilization from the Neolithic era to the present time, which included important agreements and treaties throughout history. Since diplomacy has become the preserve of empires, global hegemonic powers, and nation-states that have practiced all kinds of oppression on societies, official diplomacy has become a tool in the hands of authoritarian powers to start ongoing wars.
As Abdul Wahab Piran, a member of the Diplomatic Relations Committee of the Rojava Intellectuals Union (HRRK), stated, diplomacy is not limited to the state only, but on the contrary, the state practices diplomacy according to its interests, far from the interests of the people and society, and for society and the people to benefit from this diplomacy, it must establish its relations itself. Through institutions, unions, and professional unions.
As a spokesperson for the Civil Diplomacy Center, Nourshan Hussein emphasized the role of civil diplomacy, despite the delay in establishing a center for it in North and East Syria, and despite the challenges and obstacles, it has achieved positive steps towards establishing relationships with global institutions and federations in line with the paradigm of democratic modernity to solve problems in the Middle East and the world. It touched on the basic goals that community diplomacy works to achieve and the most important methods for practicing it at all cultural, economic, academic, and societal levels.
Nourshan noted that the Center for Community Diplomacy works to bring together all community institutions, federations, organizations, and trade unions, in addition to universities and municipalities, under one platform, presenting projects, developing relations between internal institutions and establishing lasting friendly relations between them and global and international institutions and movements.
A member of the Rojava Center for Strategic Studies, Kurdiyar Derei’i emphasized that diplomacy is not limited to countries, but rather the correct diplomacy in this era is community diplomacy, which is the basic building block in organizing institutions and establishing relationships between them. From here we conclude that if we do not organize internally well through – establishing relations between institutions, federations, and unions – we cannot practice diplomacy abroad through diplomatic representation.
Representatives of the Kurdish Red Crescent, the Democratic Society Movement “TEV-DEM” and other institutions also spoke.
It is worth noting that the Academy of Diplomacy will continue to hold these sessions periodically to discuss the latest political, diplomatic, and social developments that are brought to the table for discussion on topics of concern to the Middle East and the world.
