Syrian opposition activist and artist, Abdel Hakeem Qoutifan: Presidential election is black comedy … Regime drama neglects security oppression, terrorism, murder and arrests

Syrian opposition activist and artist, Abdel Hakeem Qoutifan: many partners in the international society are involved in the Syrian massacre

Ambitions of revolution success and its victory on enemies and against all conspiracies still existed. Dreams continue of fair democratic united Syria from its north to its south, and no matter attempts to defuse the revolution brightness, it would succeed as long as there is strong will and Syrians aren’t convinced with pain killers despite destruction everywhere.

Syrian opposition activist and artist, Abdel Hakeem Qoutifan in an exclusive interview with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believes that the problem in Syrian isn’t the absence of a clear political vision of the opposition, but the presence of the current regime, calling for forcing the regime to abide by the international decision to end the ongoing tragedy.

Question: “Difference in opinion doesn’t spoil good relations,” according to a famous proverb, but in Syria, when the people protested to demand better living conditions, freedom, and a good democratic environment, the regime has spoiled everything and has forced the people towards deportation and hunger. What made the regime so worried about the demands to the degree that led to the bloodshed for preserving the seat.

Answer: I think that the regime that came to power via a military coup in the 1970s has forced itself as an eternal case for the Syrian people, the world, and the region. The regime was part of the international security system in addition to its alliance with the Iranian rule and its emperor’s dream of spreading influence in the region from Iran to Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, which are regional and personal ambitions of the rigid and tight circuit of al-Assad regime.

The Syrian people protested in a democratic peaceful way to restore his dignity and achieve his dream of freedom, as well as to alleviate the long-year security gripe. The revolution also targeted alleviating corruption that has been practiced by the regime and its loyal aids who have been controlling the country’s whole economy.

Revolution is the shape of normal breathing from any normal society and the Syrian people after fifty years of oppression and tyranny has the right to have real parliament and elections, and a normal society that isn’t governed by terror and horror. So. The revolution project has been opposed and polluted by blood in a state of silence by the international society who also has full interest in destroying Syria and the whole region to maintain the security of Israel.

There are many partners of the international society involved in the massacre and the crisis that has displaced half of the people. Nobody is innocent, neither the international nor the regional countries. There are red lines crossed by the regime and there are several crimes of murder, death, chemical bombing, rapping, demographic change and other crimes against humanity that met with the international society’s silence.

Question: The most hurting issue right now and after ten years of war and destruction is the absence of Syrian artistic works that resemble the pains of the Syrian people in a neutral way, in your opinion, what could be the reasons for that?

Answer: Yes, the Syrian drama and cinema have not expressed the Syrians pains in a clear and deep way by presenting the reality in a logical treatment not presenting drama that is governed with certain criteria that knocked many doors of the private capital and the production institutions that alleged its support for the Syrian people in his revolution and attempts for salvation.

But unfortunately and after ten years, only one work was presented but it wasn’t distributed in the right way for the Arab fans. I believe there is a secret ally who seeks to bury the revolution with all details, activists, and people to remain only as a black memory that has relation with the ISIS, Nusrah Front, and the other factions, while the displaced people will remain as victims of side losses in that big fight. Nobody wants to present the real story of the Syrian crisis. The regime and its drama present the authority vision that there are terrorist and security institutions that work on destroying it, while not focusing on the oppression of security, terrorism, murder, blood, rapping, and arrests that have been practiced on the people. Also, large sectarian divisions in Syria have pushed many to carry weapons. Honestly, there is no drama that sides the Syrian people. However, we are ready to take part in any artistic work that embodies the people’s pains, and that delivers their voices and registers the Syrian people’s revolution that entered history.

Question: Why the revolution and opposition institutions haven’t invested in empowering and supporting the artist to deliver the suffering of the Syrian people to the world, and what were their mistakes?

Answer: The opposition institutions don’t exist in the social infrastructure. Meanwhile, revolutions of information, art, and drama in addition to the moral capital of artists with their social weight were not invested by the opposition. Artists also haven’t worked on that issue, and their efforts were mainly focused on rejecting murder, blood, deportation, and massacre. Unfortunately, the opposition institutions were far and have only communicated with the opposition artists once, and then the policy of negligence and delay were adopted. We have told the opposition institutions that the artist cadre, scenarists, and actors are ready to cooperate by those factors only don’t own the capital and the displaying platforms.

Free Syrians really ask about the role of the artists and their role in the battle that many have been seeking to bury and demolish. We are living the life of marginalization and ouster like millions of people who have served the revolution and defended the right. The regime seeks to cover our voices and to hide all the people’s sacrifices without seeing the light or been told to the people, and there is Syrian, regional, Arab, and international consensus on those policies.

Question: You have been arrested during Hafez al-Assad and paid the expensive price of marginalization and ousting from the art life and even met with denial from some of your colleges, but you haven’t been hesitated for a second in advocating the Syrian revolution and was fiercely present in the field. Have you even regrated your free stances despite arrest even for a second?

Answer: The revolution was a dream but I couldn’t have imagined that we live the moment when the people pretest against tyranny. I have never imagined that the people would say “No” and break the long-era humiliating terror that controlled our minds. All our expression tools were shadowed by terror and security grip. I was astonished to see the people protest in that majestic way from small towns until it grew and reached all of Syria that saw nearly 400 to 500 protests. We have truly wake up on a dream of the revolution majesty and stand against tyranny and oppression. I haven’t hesitated for a second to take part in each protest and march after the barrier of fears.

Our country deserves to live in peace, safety, freedom, fair distribution of wealth. The Syrians deserve to live with dignity away from military and security grip and to live according to the laws and justice principles. The oppression of the regime via security solution after Syrian-Iranian was clear before the revolution eruption in Tunis. I think there have been unexpected possible scenarios. The regime hasn’t expected the Daraa that was somehow ruled by tribes will constitute the signal of revolution, until the revolution expanded and covered all the Syrian territories. It was a great honor to take part in that mighty revolution and to stand against oppression no matter the costs and I wouldn’t regret that one day.

Question: After ten years of destruction, the Syrian regime has conducted elections while the smell of death has been in every corner of Syria, elections that refused the opposition participation. The election has brought al-Assad in a new fourth seven-year term. What is the destiny of these elections and how legitimate it is with the international and popular rejection?

Answer: The elections were black comedy that was played in the absurd theater. The elections’ loud noise was seen via media and photos. The elections were existed by authority of de facto policy, intelligence, oppression and the existed occupation forces in Syrian whether Russian or Iranians. That noise has existed via Israeli and international content with no problem. They all seek to strike conciliation with the regime and reproducing it despite blood and murder and by restoring its seat in the Arab league.

But, there is rejection in the Syrian street of the reproduction of al-Assad though his hands are polluted with his people’s blood. The rejection doesn’t come from the opposition institutions that are ruled by regional and international consensus. I depend on the people who refused to take part in the elections, badly directed play and said no in Hawran, al-Suwida, and in the north and the displaced people across the world.

The figures presented by the regime are unlogic and fabricated. The regime continues to act and lie and its allies are certain about those lies. Also, we don’t forget the international society’s rejection but it was unlogic and unjustified. What does it mean to condemn the election and don’t recognize it?

Al-Assad has committed crimes against humanity in Syria and has displaced millions and bombarded their houses and murdered their sons. I believe that UN article number seven, which was neglected by the regime, should be activated. The elections have hit the UN resolutions including number 2254. Accordingly, the European US decision that condemns and doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the election wouldn’t present anything to the Syrian people.

Whoever wants to serve the interests of the Syrian people should have been activated in article seven to force the regime to abide by the UN resolutions and the political solution. The Syrian people have said his word ten years ago while all the crowds that have been mobilized by the army security grip are known. The crowds aren’t evidence of the people’s acceptance of the current regime.

Question: Song “Oh if you could return back” that carries deep pain which you have repeated to mourn your friend, Abdel Baset al-Sarout, who was an iconic figure of the revolution, was a song that touched all who heard it for its honest performance and deep words. “Oh if you could return back” that was dressed in black has inhabited the Syrian hearts who see their revolution light is faded day by day, do you agree with that opinion?

Answer: The song was dedicated to Abdel Baset and all martyrs of the Syrian revolution. It is a form of artistic expression that inhabits the Syrian popular memory and collective consciences. The song was a platform for expressing the people’s hearts, the defeat, and sorrow about the loss of each free protester. We used praising or mourning and many unfamiliar sentences to express our sorrows.

Until today, when I listened to that song, I have the same feeling of pain for our losses who are estimated more than one million Syrians including children, men, and women who passed away in the Syrian crisis that we have and still live and deserved to be memorized by songs, cinema, drama or that are portrayed in pictures, poetry, novels and all shapes of intellectual, literature and art expressions.

Question: How do you evaluate the role of the Syrian opposition, and does it achieved its objective or it was involved in agendas that harmed the peaceful Syrian revolution that has been militarized?

Answer: I think the Syrian opposition formations are the results of intelligence and international consensus and have never expressed the Syrian people’s willingness. There is a security breakthrough amid lines of the opposition and the revolution that seeks to abort the latter. There is another section in the opposition with no political history against the regime that just appeared by accident after 2011 due to international and intelligence relations. There are some names that seek tirelessly to serve the revolution but we are tackling here the public phenomenon like the Syrian opposition coalition and other existing platforms which are below the people ambitions and expectations.

I think from the beginning, all those movements should have been rejected because the Syrian people have demanded his dignity, freedom, justice and good living in a country of citizenship and hasn’t demanded elections, prisoners, and transitional justice baskets that I consider games to play on times to reproduce the regime, and imposed it on the Syrians with Iranian support amid disgusting international and shameful silence.

That opposition doesn’t express the Syrian people and doesn’t represent them or understand their sufferings, but it is an eyewitness of all the bloodshed in the revolution.

Question: Some analysts said that the absence of clear political vision by the opposition Has inflamed the conditions and contributed to boosting the regime in a way or another to ensure continuity and existence, do you agree with that?

Answer: I think it is an unfair situation where we deem the opposition as missing a clear political vision. The opposition was present in the Cairo document and all similar meetings since the beginning of the revolution. There were visions that have been discussed among different parties but I think the regional and international interventions, militarizing the revolution and dragging it into a place that has nothing to do with demands of freedom and dignity amid international silence should be condemned. We need international and regional friends to stand beside the opposition and boost the people. But those we needed were responsible for the ongoing shameful crisis.

There is absolutely undeniable corruption, but the experience of the Syrian opposition in international and intelligence relations is so limited. The vision was normal as has happened in Libya and Egypt and others until the army has interfered to demolish the massacres that those countries have suffered, but I think the Syrian situation is completely different especially with the bloody Iranian intervention since the eruption of the Syrian revolution which has toughened the living conditions of the people.

Question: What are the mistakes of the Syrian revolution?

Answer: depending on the west, and regional countries, and the military and corrupted political capital. Many of the policies and practices have harmed the revolution. Today in Syria, there are four governments, the regime, Nusrah front, Coalition government, and SFD in addition to five occupations. As a result of the mistakes, the solution of the Syrian crisis has become international not in Syrian hands, but this doesn’t mean to surrender. It is important to produce a simple, fixed, clear political platform that has nothing to do with theories. The Syrian want a persuasive political solution by the departure of the regime and by establishing a transitional ruling and freeing the prisoners and achieving transitional justice and dismantle all the separation projects that have harmed the revolution. Syria should come back to the Syrians as untied along with its territories without exception or separation.

Question: How do you see the future of Syria when you are the dreamer who said “my root is in Syria, my dream is in Syria and my passion and love is for Syria”?

Answer: I live with hope and I will always be either time allows us or not. I believe that despite the picture is gloomy, we should leave space for different historical surprises.