Statement by the Kurdish Council on the Constitutional Declaration

Yekiti Media

Syrians were surprised by the constitutional declaration issued in Damascus in March 13, 2025, which came as a disappointment, far from the aspirations to build a democratic state that reflects the true diversity of Syrian society. The declaration was prepared by a committee that did not represent the various political, national and religious components, which made it lack inclusiveness and national consensus, and led to the perpetuation of exclusion and monopolization of power.

The declaration ignored Syria’s pluralistic nature, failing to recognize it as a multi-national and multi-religious state, nor did it guarantee the national and religious rights of its components, instead establishing a single national identity in the name of the state, in a clear exclusion of other components. It also violated the principle of neutralizing the state from religions by maintaining the requirement of the religion of the president, which contradicts the principles of equal citizenship that are supposed to be the basis of any democratic system.

Moreover, the declaration reinforced the centralized system of government and granted the president wide powers, without clear guarantees of separation of powers or institutional balance, raising fears of reproducing authoritarianism in new forms. Its articles also include additional restrictions on civil and individual freedoms, making it a continuation of the authoritarian approach to society.

The limitation of the transitional period to five years without guarantees of fair participation turns it into a tool to perpetuate the existing reality rather than a prelude to a real political transformation, deepening the crisis rather than resolving it.

The Kurdish National Council in Syria sees this declaration as another step towards consolidating unilateralism and monopolizing power, which requires a responsible stance from all national democratic and nationalist forces to reconsider it in order to achieve political and national pluralism and prevent the reproduction of the dictatorship. The Council also affirms its commitment to the struggle for a democratic and just solution to the Kurdish issue, as the cause of an indigenous people, within the framework of a decentralized Syria that guarantees the rights of all its people and achieves justice and equality among them.

Qamishlo, March 14, 2025
General Secretariat of the Kurdish National Council in Syria